ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

THE    MAN    OF    THE    PEOPLE 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


THE    MAN   OF   THE    PEOPLE 


BY 


NORMAN    HAPGOOD 

AUTHOR  OF   "LITERARY  STATESMEN,"   "A   LIFE  OF 
DANIEL  WEBSTER,"   ETC. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:   MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
IQOO 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1899, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  October,  1899.      Reprinted  January, 


J.  S.  Cashing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

To  an  American  in  sympathy  with  his  coun 
try,  loving  her  as  she  is,  not  wishing  her  essen 
tially  different,  there  can  be  few  historical  figures 
as  attractive  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  Unequalled, 
since  Washington,  in  service  to  the  nation,  he  is 
unrivalled  among  our  statesmen  in  the  closeness 
with  which  he  represents  our  land. 

"  He  was  the  North,  the  South,  the  East,  the  West, 
The  thrall,  the  master,  all  of  us  in  one." 

The  biography  of  such  a  man  can  afford  hon 
esty.  Some  have  omitted  what  was  not  pretty. 
Others  have  apologized  for  it.  Many  would  like 
to  improve  the  rugged  and  homely  face  with  a 
touch  of  rouge  or  magnesia.  Surely  this  is  triv 
ial.  Let  us  not  try  to  make  our  great  man  like 
other  great  men.  Let  us  allow  him  to  reach  as 
high  as  the  saints  in  one  direction,  and  as  high 
as  Rabelais  in  another.  Let  him  be  the  prairie 
male  as  well  as  the  sage  and  martyr,  the  deft 
politician  as  well  as  the  generous  statesman. 
Paint  him  as  he  is.  He  will  still  be  great,  nobler 

V 

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m  \ 

vi  PREFACE 

than  ever,  because  more  real.  Better  the  truth 
and  strength  and  beauty  that  are,  than  any  fic 
tion  less  human  and  less  profound.  Following 
the  real  Lincoln  from  the  hovel  to  the  White 
House,  from  the  village  girls  and  the  tavern 
stories  to  Gettysburg  and  the  second  inaugural, 
we  live  grandly,  up  and  down,  to  the  right  and 
to  the  left,  breathing  the  air  of  the  plains,  the 
mountains,  the  closet,  the  hospital,  of  poetic  su 
perstition  and  of  the  sanest  wisdom,  and  we  see 
that  life  is  good,  that  our  nation  is  good,  and 
that  it  is  well  to  know  the  truth. 

Lincoln  himself  refused  to  read  a  life  of  Burke 
because  he  believed  that  biographies  were  indis 
criminate  eulogies.  Praise  and  blame  have  small 
place,  and  suppression,  none,  in  the  story  of  a 
large  soul.  It  is  not  when  justice  is  done  that 
the  heavens  fall. 

Thirty-four  years  have  passed  since  Lincoln's 
death.  A  generation,  unborn  when  he  was  shot, 
is  now  thinking  and  writing.  It  starts  without 
the  passions  of  the  strife.  We  no  longer  see  the 
problems  as  black  and  white.  One  of  us  has 
said  recently  that  the  negro  was  freed  in  the 
South  that  he  might  be  lynched  in  Ohio.  Wre 
now  see  the  threads  of  right  and  wrong  distinct 
yet  tangled,  as  Lincoln  saw  them,  even  when  he 
stood  in  the  centre  of  the  storm.  Those  who 
weathered  the  gale  have  left  their  memories  of 


PREFACE  vii 

the  pilot.  The  material  is  in.  The  opportunity 
is  here  for  any  who  can  use  it. 

The  present  biography  is  not  a  history  of  the 
Civil  War.  It  is  not  an  argument  about  emanci 
pation  or  reconstruction.  It  is  solely  the  per 
sonal  history  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  it  appears 
to  one  of  his  countrymen.  To  that  particular 
reader  an  anecdote  or  a  picturesque  phrase  often 
seems  more  important  than  a  bill  or  a  message  to 
Congress.  He  has  tried  to  select  those  incidents 
which  are  doubly  true,  because  they  are  at  once 
actual  and  significant,  and  this  truth  is  as  likely 
to  inhere  in  the  amusing  as  in  the  solemn. 

To  give  credit  for  the  sources  of  an  impres 
sion,  which  is  often  breathed  from  the  air  of  daily 
thought  and  conversation,  is  not  easy,  but  a  few 
words  are  due  to  the  principal  books  on  the  sub 
ject.  Nothing  compares  in  value  with  Lincoln's 
own  words,  and  the  two  volumes  of  his  papers 
and  correspondence  are  worth  all  that  has  been 
written  about  him.  The  official  biography  by 
Nicolay  and  Hay  contains  much  valuable  mate 
rial  not  to  be  found  elsewhere.  Herndon  has 
told  the  President's  early  life  with  refreshing 
honesty,  and  with  more  information  than  any  one 
else.  Lamon  has  shown  vividly  the  side  of  Lin 
coln  which  naturally  came  out  when  he  was  in 
the  company  of  his  exuberant  marshal.  Whit 
ney's  "  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln  "  is  full 


viii  PREFACE 

of  good  stories  of  the  western  bar,  and  the  Presi 
dent's  relation  to  it.  Nobody  has  made  the  poli 
tician's  adroitness  so  real  as  Colonel  McClure. 
Miss  Tarbell  has  gathered  some  facts  to  supple 
ment  and  correct  Herndon  and  others.  Morse's 
biography,  in  the  American  Statesmen  Series,  is 
an  orderly  and  serious  account  of  Lincoln's  rela 
tion  to  the  principal  public  questions.  The  other 
works  are  legion,  but  these  have  seemed,  to  the 
present  writer,  most  fertile  among  the  books  deal 
ing  mainly  with  Lincoln.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  a  short  impression,  incidental  to  some  other 
object,  may  be  worth  a  volume.  Thus  flashes  of 
the  greatest  value  have  been  given  by  Emerson, 
Lowell,  Greeley,  Grant,  Elaine,  McClellan,  and 
Sherman.  Singularly  enough,  perhaps,  almost 
nothing  of  worth  has  been  written  about  Lincoln 
in  foreign  countries.  It  is  probable,  also,  that  in 
his  own  country,  while  flashes  have  been  given 
by  great  compatriots,  and  indispensable  records 
left  by  other  contemporaries,  most  of  the  per 
manent  lives,  large  and  small,  picturesque  and 
technical,  remain  to  be  written. 

N.  H. 

NEW  YORK,  July,  1899. 


NOTE 

The  frontispiece  to  this  volume,  which  is  gen 
erally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  portrait  of 
Lincoln,  is  reproduced  from  a  negative  made  at 
Springfield,  Illinois,  June,  1860,  by  Alexander 
Hesler  of  Chicago.  The.  negative  is  now  owned 
by  Mr.  George  B.  Ayres  of  Philadelphia,  who  has 
very  kindly  placed  his  copyrighted  enlargement 
at  the  disposal  of  the  publishers. 

I  have  also  to  acknowledge  Mr.  Charles 
Eugene  Hamlin's  courtesy  in  lending  me  the 
original  portrait  which  was  presented  to  Mr. 
Hannibal  Hamlin  by  Lincoln  in  1864.  The 
other  portraits,  by  Hesler  and  by  Brady,  are  from 
the  collection  of  Mr.  H.  W.  Fay  of  De  Kalb, 
Illinois,  to  whom  my  thanks  are  due  for  the  loan. 
The  facsimile  of  Lincoln's  autobiography  is  taken 
from  the  copyrighted  reproduction  of  the  original 
now  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Jesse  W.  Fell,  to 
whose  courtesy  its  appearance  in  this  book  is 
due.  The  newspaper  cut,  from  the  portrait  by 
the  late  Thomas  Hicks,  N.  A.,  was  kindly  lent 
by  the  editor  of  the  North  American  Review. 


x  NOTE 

I  take  pleasure,  finally,  in  acknowledging  my 
indebtedness  to  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co. 
for  permission  to  print  the  quotation  from 
Lowell's  "Commemoration  Ode,"  and  to  Messrs. 
Small,  Maynard,  &  Co.  for  their  kindness  in 
allowing  me  to  use  Whitman's  poem,  "  Oh  Cap 
tain,  my  Captain  ! " 

N.  H. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE        v 

NOTE ix 

LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 

CHAPTER 

I.     ORIGIN  AND  CHILDHOOD i 

II.     EARLY  EXPERIMENTS  IN  LIFE          ....  22 

III.  BEGINNINGS  IN  POLITICS  AND  LOVE         .        .        -41 

IV.  SPRINGFIELD;  MISERY  AND  MARRIAGE    ...  60 
V.    CONGRESS 86 

VI.  LINCOLN  AS  A  LAWYER 103 

VII.  THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES 123 

VIII.  NOMINATION  AND  ELECTION 151 

IX.  FACING  THE  STORM 171 

X.  BEGINNINGS  OF  WAR 188 

XI.  THE  NEW  PRESIDENT'S  TACT  .....  237 

XII.  DARK  DAYS:  EMANCIPATION 268 

XIII.  POLITICS  AND  WAR 293 

XIV.  THE  TURNING  OF  THE  TIDE 320 

XV.     RENOMINATION  AND  REELECTION     ....  343 

XVI.     VICTORY  AND  DEATH 382  \ 

XVII.    A  LAST  WORD 408 

INDEX .        .421 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Portrait  of  Lincoln  from  a  photograph  taken  by  Hesler  in 

Tune,  1860 Frontispiece 


PAGE 


Portrait  of  Lincoln  from  a  photograph  taken  by  Hesler  at 

Chicago  in  1857        .  fadn£    80 

A  newspaper  cut  of  Lincoln  made,  in  1860  from  an  earlier 
portrait  by  the  same  artist,  the  late  Thomas  Hicks,  N.A. 

facing  1 66 

Facsimile  of  the  autobiography  sent  by  Lincoln  to  the  late 
Mr.  Jesse  W.  Fell  and  used  in  the  political  campaign 
of  1 860  .  .  .  •  facing  170 

Facsimile  of  the  letter  dated  May  21,  1861,  from  Secretary 
Seward  to  Charles  Francis  Adams,  United  States  Min 
ister  to  England :  corrected  by  Lincoln  .  .  217-231 

Portrait  of  Lincoln  taken  in  1860  by  Brady  in  New  York,  at 

the  time  of  the  speech  at  the  Cooper  Institute  facing  260 

Facsimile  of  the  Gettysburg  Address        .  •      336-337 

Portrait  of  Lincoln  from  a  photograph  taken  in    1864  and 

presented  by  him  to  Hannibal  Hamlin      .  facing  360 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN' 


CHAPTER   I 

ORIGIN    AND    CHILDHOOD 

WHEN  Lowell  calls  Lincoln  the  first  American, 
and  when  Emerson  rejoices  that  a  middle-class, 
nation  was  wise  enough  to  select  a  middle-class 
president,  the  importance  of  that  ruler's  social 
origin  is  suggested.  He  sprang  from  the  great 
base  of  the  national  life,  with,  few  traditions,  no 
knowledge  of  other  lands  and  times,  confronting 
a  wilderness  and  its  pioneers,  longing  for  light, 
but  having  to  work  for  every  ray.  Thrown  in 
tellectually  naked  into  the  world,  his  education 
had  to  be  directly  from  the  nature  of  the  men 
and  women  who  passed  before  him,  so  that  when 
he  came  to  his  great  trial,  he  had  to  pilot  a  peo 
ple  whose  peculiarities  he  intimately  knew.  The 
fathers  of  the  Revolution  were  cultivated  English 
men  confronting  Englishmen.  Lincoln's  whole 
nature  grew  in  our  soil,  and  when  he  was  asked  to 
rule  a  distracted  country,  native  strength,  honesty, 
and  shrewdness  had  as  their  foundation  an  inti- 


2  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

macy  with    the    kinds    of   human    nature   which 
formed  the  conflicting  masses. 

His  family  emigrated  from  Norfolk,  England, 
in  =  163 7.\ /His;  : grandfather,  Abraham,  left  Vir 
ginia,,  where  he  was  a  fairly  prosperous  farmer, 
\tp;  ^p}ibW  ih-the  Wa'ke  of  the  aspiring  pioneer, 
Daniel  Boone.  In  1780,  he  sold  240  acres  of 
land  for  "  five  thousand  pounds  current  money 
of  Virginia,"  and  moved  to  Kentucky,  where,  in 
the  custom  of  the  time,  he  "  entered "  a  large 
amount  of  land,  settling  near  one  tract  on  Long 
Run,  in  Jefferson  County,  to  clear  a  farm.  As 
the  Indians  were  dangerous,  there  were  but  eigh 
teen  houses  in  the  territory,  practically  all  of  the 
population,  which  in  1784  was  thirty  thousand, 
living,  the  Linkhorns  among  them,  in  the  fifty- 
two  stockades.  In  1788,  while  he  and  his  three 
sons  were  at  work  in  the  clearing,  a  stray  shot 
from  an  Indian  killed  him.  An  inventory  of  his 
personal  estate  was  made,  according  to  Miss  Tar- 
bell,  as  follows :  — 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Nelson  County  Court,  October 
10,  1788,  present  Benjamin  Pope,  James  Rogers,  Ga 
briel  Cox,  and  James  Baird,  on  the  motion  of  John  Cold- 
well,  he  was  appointed  administrator  of  the  goods  and 
chattels  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  gave  bond  in  one 
thousand  pounds,  with  Richard  Parker  security. 

"  At  the  same  time  John  Alvary,  Peter  Syburt,  Chris 
topher  Boston,  and  William  (John  (?))  Stuck,  or  any 
three  of  them,  were  appointed  appraisers. 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  3 

"March  10,  1789,  the  appraisers  made  the  following 
return : 

£     *•     d. 

i  Sorrel  horse        ......  8 

i  Black  horse 910 

i  Red  cow  and  calf       .         .         .         .         .  4     10 

i  Brindle  cow  and  calf 4     10 

i  Red  cow  and  calf       .         .         .         .         .5 

i  Brindle  bull  yearling   ...  .  i 

i  Brindle  heifer  yearling         .         .         .         .  i 
Bar  Spear-plough  and  tackling     .         .         .25 

3  Weeding  hoes 7       6 

Flax  wheel          ......  6 

Pair  smoothing  irons  .  .         .         .  15 

1  Dozen  pewter  plates   .         .         .  .  i     10 

2  Pewter  dishes  ....  176 
Dutch  oven  and  cule,  weighing  15  pounds    .  15 
Small   iron   kettle   and   cule,    weighing    12 

pounds  ......  12 

Tool  adds  .....  10 

Hand  saw  .......  5 

One  inch  auger  ......  6 

Three-quarter  auger    ....  4     6 

Half-inch  auger  ......  3 

Drawing-knife     .....  3 

Currying-knife     ....  .  10 

Currier's  knife  and  barking-iron  .  6 

Old  smooth-bar  gun   .  10 

Rifle  gun    ....  55 

Rifle  gun -  3     I0 

2  Pott  trammels     .  ...  14 

i  Feather  bed  and  furniture  .  .         .  5     10 

Ditto          ....  ..85 

i  Bed  and  turkey  feathers  and  furniture          .  i     10 


4  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

£     *•     *. 
Steeking-iron      ......  i     6 

Candle-stick i     6 

One  axe 9 

PETER  SYBURT, 
CHRISTOPHER  BOSTON, 
JOHN  STUCK." 

Of  the  sons,  the  eldest,  Mordecai,  who  inherited 
most  of  the  land,  seems  to  have  been  prosperous 
and  esteemed,  besides  being  a  good  teller  of  sto 
ries,  a  fighter,  and  a  fierce  hater  of  Indians.  Ac 
cording  to  his  famous  nephew,  he  had  "  run  off 
with  all  the  talents  of  the  family."  Certainly  few 
fell  to  Thomas,  the  youngest,  who  later  became 
father  to  Abraham.  Jrje  was  taken  by  his  wid 
owed  mother  to  Washington  County,  where  he 
became  a  carpenter  and  cabinet  maker,  knowing 
his  trade,  but  too  lazy  to  make  much  use  of  it. 
He  was  entirely  illiterate,  but  he  also  had  social 
qualities,  among  them  the  ability  to  tell  the  sto 
ries  picked  up  in  a  vagrant  life,  and  to  make  him 
self  respected  in  a  fight  when  his  pacific  soul 
was  stirred.  He  was  a  Jackson  Democrat  who 
couldn't  write  his  name,  until  his  first  wife  taught 
him  to  scrawl  it,  the  farthest  reach  of  education 
he  ever  acquired.  His  name  was  under  the  cir 
cumstances  unstable,  but  in  Indiana  it  showed  a 
general  drift  toward  Lickern,  away  from  the  fav- 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  5 

orite  Kentucky  form  of  Linckorn,  settling  in  its 
present  spelling  many  years  later  in  Illinois.  Tom 
was  taken  with  spasms  of  religion,  belonging  part 
of  the  time  to  no  denomination  and  again  to  sev 
eral  in  succession,  none  of  which  affected  the 
truth  of  the  statement  made  by  his  relative 
John  Hanks :  "  Happiness  was  the  end  of  life 
with  him." 

On  June  12,  1806,  near  Beachland  in  Wash 
ington  County,  Kentucky,  Thomas  married  Nancy 
Hanks,  the  daughter  of  Joseph  Hanks  of  Eliza- 
bethtown,  in  whose  shop  he  had  learned  his 
trade.  She  is  said  to  have  been  sensitive,  melan 
choly,  brooding,  frail,  with  native  refinement,  the 
rudiments  of  education,  and  delicate  instincts, 
qualities  which  failed  to  make  her  marriage  an 
ideal  one.  Tom,  settling  in  Elizabethtown,  con 
tinued  his  uneventful  pursuit  of  ease,  combining 
it  with  sufficient  effort  to  keep  the  family  alive. 
After  one  daughter  had  been  born,  he  moved  to 
his  farm,  about  fourteen  miles  from  Elizabeth- 
,  town,  where  his  wife  bore  a  son  named  Abraham. 
To  an  artist  who  was  painting  his  portrait  Lin 
coln  once  furnished  this  memorandum :  "  I  was 
born  February  12,  1809,  in  the  then  Hardin 
County,  Kentucky,  at  a  point  within  the  new 
county  of  La  Rue,  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  where  Hodgens  Mill  now  is.  My  parents 
being  dead,  and  my  own  memory  not  serving,  I 


6  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

know  of  no  means  of  identifying  the  precise  local 
ity.     It  was  on  Nolin  Creek." 

This  infant  began  life  in  what  was  called  a 
camp,  because  it  was  made  of  poles.  Had  it  been 
made  of  logs,  it  would  have  been  called  a  cabin. 
It  was  about  fourteen  feet  square  and  had  no 
floor.  Life  on  the  frontier  was  not  luxurious,  and 
little  Abraham's  father  was  not  the  most  enter 
prising  of  the  settlers.  However,  Abraham  did 
not  care  much  just  then,  and  he  was  but  four 
when  his  father,  who  spent  his  life  in  moving, 
went  onto  another  farm,  fifteen  miles  to  the  north 
east,  on  Knob  Creek.  In  1816,  when  Abraham 
was  seven,  Tom  took  another  change,  this  time 
sampling  Indiana.  Gathering  together  every 
thing  he  owned  in  the  way  of  goods  and  family, 
he  proceeded  on  horseback,  aided  by  one  wagon, 
to  a  new  farm  near  Little  Pigeon  Creek,  about 
fifteen  miles  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  a  mile 
and  a  half  east  of  Gentryville,  in  Spencer  County, 
a  village  in  which  Abe,  as  he  was  always  called, 
soon  found  company  and  the  ideas  which  cluster 
about  a  country  store  increased  by  contributions 
from  the  craft  which  passed  down  the  Ohio.  So 
primitive  was  the  country  that  on  the  journey 
Tom  was  in  places  compelled  to  cut  his  way 
through  the  forest.  When  he  reached  his  desti 
nation  he  put  into  the  hand  of  the  seven-year-old 
Abe  an  axe,  with  which  the  boy  helped  make  a 


ORIGIN   AND  CHILDHOOD  7 

clearing  and  build  a  camp.  This  camp  was  one 
of  the  proudest  achievements  of  Tom's  history. 
It  was  half-faced,  which  signifies  that  it  was  a 
shed  of  poles,  entirely  open  on  one  side,  roughly 
protecting  the  wife  and  two  small  children  from 
the  weather  in  the  other  three  directions.  In  this 
shed,  winter  and  summer,  the  family  lived  a  whole 
year,  while  Tom  and  Abe  cleared  a  little  patch 
for  corn  and  Tom  built  a  permanent  dwelling. 
Into  this  mansion  he  moved  before  it  was  half 
completed,  and  found  it  so  attractive  that  he  left 
it  for  a  year  or  two  without  doors,  windows,  or 
floor.  For  chairs  there  were  three-legged  stools ; 
the  bedstead  was  made  of  poles  stuck  between  the 
logs  in  the  angle  of  the  cabin,  the  outside  corner 
supported  by  a  crotched  stick  driven  into  the 
ground ;  the  bedclothes  were  skins.  When  Abe 
went  to  bed,  however,  it  was  not  in  this,  the  only 
room  in  the  cabin,  but  in  the  loft,  on  a  bunch  of 
leaves,  which  he  reached  by  climbing  a  ladder 
made  of  wooden  pegs  driven  into  the  logs.  There 
was  a  dining-room  table,  consisting  of  a  large, 
hewed  log  standing  on  four  legs,  and  the  nourish 
ment  was  prepared  and  served  by  Mrs.  Lincoln 
with  the  aid  of  a  pot,  a  kettle,  a  skillet,  and  a  few 
tin  and  pewter  dishes.  Abe  did  not  always  fully 
enjoy  what  this  table  offered  him;  for  when  his 
father,  in  one  of  his  pious  moods,  asked  a  blessing 
on  a  meal  consisting  wholly  of  roasted  potatoes,  the 


8  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

boy  is  related  to  have  ventured  the  comment  that 
they  were  mighty  poor  blessings.  Sometimes 
raw  potatoes  were  peeled  for  dessert,  and  as 
wheat  was  rare,  corn  dodger  served  as  bread. 
Cooking  in  that  region  was  worthy  of  the  mate 
rial  on  which  it  worked. 

The  woods,  full  of  malaria,  breathed  out  fre 
quent  epidemics,  one  of  which,  the  milk-sick,  rag 
ing  in  Pigeon  Creek  in  1818,  in  October  took  the 
life  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln.  Tom  made  a 
coffin  of  green  lumber,  cut  with  a  whip-saw,  and 
taking  his  children  and  a  handful  of  Gentryville 
friends,  buried  her.  The  little  son  felt  mournful 
over  the  sad  and  hasty  spectacle,  and  several 
months  later,  the  story  goes,  when  a  wandering 
clergyman  happened  by,  the  boy  induced  him  to 
go  along  with  him  to  the  grave  and  give  to  the 
dead  mother  more  solemn  rites. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  when  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  after  years  spoke  of  his  angel  of  a 
mother,  or  his  sainted  mother,  it  was  not  of  this 
frail  woman  that  he  thought,  but  of  the  stronger 
and  more  decisive  person  with  whom  his  father 
filled  her  place.  Tom  had  wished  to  marry  Sarah 
Busch  when  he  was  a  bachelor,  but  Sarah  was 
not  impressed  by  his  talents  and  chose  a  man 
named  Johnson.  A  very  few  months  after  Nancy 
died  Tom  started  for  Kentucky,  where  his  old 
friend  was  the  widowed  mother  of  three  children. 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  9 

To  her  he  offered  himself  again,  alleging  reformed 
habits  and  an  improved  worldly  condition.  On 
these  representations  she  took  him,  and  soon  after 
Abraham  and  his  sister  saw  their  cabin  ap 
proached  by  the  most  prosperous  woman  who 
had  ever  entered  their  lives.  In  the  wagon  which 
carried  her  goods  were  furniture,  cooking  utensils, 
and  bedding  of  a  magnificence  and  luxury  beyond 
their  experience.  Not  too  much  cast  down  by 
the  contrast  between  her  husband's  story  and  his 
cabin,  she  took  both  him  and  it  in  hand.  She 
forced  him  to  put  in  doors  and  floors,  and  per 
haps  windows,  which  consisted  of  greased  paper 
over  a  hole,  and  she  taught  the  children  some  of 
the  order  and  habits  of  civilization. 

Abraham,  now  aged  ten,  was  a  queer,  homely 
boy,  with  irregular  face,  coarse  features,  protrud 
ing  ears,  strong  limbs,  and  an  ambitious  mind. 
If  he  had  been  to  school  in  Kentucky,  it  was 
nothing  to  count ;  and  although  he  was  now  eager 
to  learn,  and  had  the  opportunity  occasionally, 
when  work  was  slack,  to  take  advantage  of  some 
institution  which  kept  open  when  there  happened 
to  be  a  floating  schoolmaster,  he  later  estimated 
that  his  entire  schooling  put  together  would  add 
up  to  about  one  year.  The  wandering  gentlemen 
who  furnished  the  instruction  needed  to  know 
something  about  the  three  R's  and  a  good  deal 
about  the  physical  domination  of  rough  boys. 


10  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  first  Indiana  school  attended  by  the  little  Lin 
coln  was  kept  by  Hazel  Dorsey,  and  stood  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  his  father's  cabin.  It  was  made  of 
logs,  high  enough  for  a  man  to  stand  erect  under 
the  loft.  The  floor  was  of  split  logs,  the  chimney 
of  poles  and  clay,  the  windows  of  the  usual  greased 
paper  pasted  on  pieces  of  split  board  which  covered 
Xan  aperture  made  by  cutting  out  parts  of  two  logs. 
Abraham  is  supposed  not  to  have  been  quick,  but 
to  have  stood  high  through  his  industry  and  keen 
interest.  Although  the  boy  was  so  useful  with 

"liis  axe  that  he  was  often  taken  from  school,  even 
when  it  existed,  to  work  at  home,  or  be  hired  out 
to  others,  he  got  partly  even  by  studying  on  Sun 
days  or  on  the  way  to  and  from  work,  perhaps 
even  when  he  was  driving  the  team  or  doing 
other  industrial  chores  and  learning  the  rudi 
ments  of  his  father's  trade. 

At  fourteen  he  received  another  taste  of  in 
struction  under  the  guidance  of  one  Andrew 
Crawford,  and  the  progress  in  his  nature  and 
knowledge  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  this  pe 
riod  he  sat  with  a  schoolmate,  Amy  Roby,  on 
the  bank  of  the  river,  and,  while  both  dangled 
^the'ir  feet  in  the  water,  explained  to  his  girl  com 
panion  that  the  motion  of  the  moon,  which  seemed 
to  be  rising  above  the  neighboring  hills,  was  only 
illusion,  gy  this  time  he  probably  knew  a  good 

jdeal,  for  he  was  going  weekly  to  Gentryville  to 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  n 

read  the  Louisville  newspaper,  and  the  few  books 
which  existed  in  the  neighborhood  he  learned 
thoroughly.  The  Bible  was  at  hand,  and  he  read 
it,  but,  his  stepmother  says,  "  he  sought  more  con 
genial  books."  These  more  congenial  volumes  in 
cluded  /Esop's  "Fables,"  which  probably  confirmed 
his  ij3J2&nt££l  tendency  to  speak  in  parables ; 
"Robinson  Crusoe";  "The  Pilgrim's  Progress," 
which  was  no  more  successful  than  the  Bible  in 
bringing  out  religion ;  a  history  of  the  United 
States ;  and  Weems's  "  Life  of  Washington,"  to 
which  he  used  to  refer  .  many  years  later.  At 
this  ripe  age  of  fourteen  he  would  write  and 
cipher  with  chalk  on  the  cabin  walls,  or  on  the 
wooden  shovel,  which  he  could  whittle  clean 
again,  reserving  the  scarce  allowance  of  paper 
for  copying  extracts  from  borrowed  books.  Re 
turning  from  work,  he  would  go  to  the  cupboard, 
take  a  piece  of  corn  bread,  and  sit  down  to 
read. 

At  seventeen  he  saw  his  last  school  days,  with 
one  Swaney,  four  and  one-half  miles  from  the 
cabin,  and  his  progress  may  be  guessed  from  the 
tale  that  he  used  to  deliver  discourses  against 
cruelty  to  animals,  in  favor  of  temperance,  and 
against  the  horrors  of  war.  These  views  go 
harmoniously  with  the  story  that  when  he  found 
the  town  drunkard  freezing  by  the  roadside  he 
saved  his  life  by  carrying  him  in  his  arms  to  the 


12  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

cabin.  In  the  meantime  he  continued  his  own 
education,  taking  one  step  forward  by  studying 
the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana,  which  he  bor 
rowed  from  the  town  constable.  Of  course  his 
father  took  no  joy  in  these  Teachings  out  of  his 
ungainly  son,  but  the  new  wife  was  mistress  in 
her  home,  and  she  protected  Abraham  against 
the  interference  of  Tom,  helping  the  boy  to 
school  days  and  to  a  quiet  corner  for  study  at 
home.  They  were  friends  and  confidants,  and 
the  stepson's  gratitude  never  ceased.  "  Educa 
tion  defective  "  is  his  complete  description  of  his 
early  life  given  to  the  compiler  of  the  Dictionary 
of  Congress,  and  he  hated  to  speak  of  it,  but 
much  of  what  light  the  surrounding  obstacles 
admitted  was  thankfully  credited  to  his  step 
mother. 

Amid  conflicting  impressions  it  seems  probable 
that  Abraham,  although  a  strong  and  effective 
workman,  had  no  exorbitant  love  of  the  axe  for 
its  own  sake.  He  enjoyed  mounting  the  stump 
to  make  a  speech,  for  which  he  soon  earned  local 
fame,  or  repeating  on  Monday  the  sermon  of  the 
Sabbath,  or  reading  texts  and  delivering  dis 
courses  to  the  younger  children  in  the  cabin 
when  his  parents  went  alone  to  hear  a  preacher. 
All  this  was  intellectual  and  unprofitable,  and 
Tom  didn't  like  it.  Says  the  relative  Dennis 
Hanks:  "I  never  could  tell  whether  Abe  loved 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  13 

his  father  very  well  or  not.  I  don't  think  he  did, 
for  Abe  was  one  of  those  forward  boys.  I  have 
seen  his  father  knock  him  down  off  the  fence 
when  a  stranger  would  ask  the  way  to  a  neigh 
bor's  house.  Abe  would  always  have  the  first 
word.  The  old  man  loved  his  children."  The' 
same  facts  seem  to  shine  through  the  statement^ 
that  Tom's  rage  grew  out  of  his  son's  fondness 
for  drawing  passers-by  into  long  conversations. 
The  neighbor  John  Romine  says:  "Abe  was 
awful  lazy.  He  worked  for  me ;  was  always 
reading  and  thinking ;  used  to  get  mad  at  him. 
He  worked  for  me  in  1829,  pulling  fodder.  I 
say  Abe  was  awful  lazy:  he  would  laugh  and 
talk  and  crack  jokes  all  the  time ;  didn't  love 
work,  but  did  dearly  love  his  pay.  .  .  .  Lincoln 
said  to  me  one  day,  that  his  father  taught  him  to 
work,  but  never  learned  him  to  love  it." 

His  preference  for  thought,  conversation,  and 
observation,  working  amid  difficult  surroundings 
and  dealing  with  things  as  he  found  them  in  a 
wilderness,  did  not  create  spontaneously  and  at 
once  the  style  of  the  Gettysburg  address,  or  of  his 
most  profoundly  humorous  remarks.  Much  of 
his  early  effort  was  florid,  much  was  coarse,  but 
most  of  it  was  vital.  Some  idea  of  the  form  taken 
by  his  early  love  of  poetry  and  humor  may  be 
gleaned  from  these  verses  by  him,  written  in  a 
book  of  his  own  manufacture :  — 


14  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  Abraham  Lincoln 

his  hand  and  pen. 
he  will  be  good,  but 
god  knows  When." 

Everything  about  him  was  elemental,  unsifted, 
and  raw.  In  Gentryville  the  barbaric  aspect  of 
life  was  disappearing  as  he  reached  manhood,  but 
it  was  still  the  frontier.  Young  men  and  women 
travelled  far  to  log-rollings,  which  consisted  of 
piling  up  timber  and  burning  it  for  amusement, 
and  to  various  social  gatherings,  to  which  the 
women  in  sfood  weather  went  with  their  shoes  in 

o 

their  hands,  the  older  ones  when  they  reached 
their  destination  drinking  whiskey  toddy  while  the 
men  drank  whiskey  straight.  Lincoln  was  always 
temperate,  drinking  little  with  his  friends,  and 
nothing  at  home.  Then  there  were  "raisings," 
or  gatherings  to  build  a  house  in  a  day ;  and  wolf- 
hunts,  in  which  the  sportsmen,  making  a  circle 
miles  in  diameter,  chased  the  victims  toward  a 
chosen  centre,  marked  by  a  tall  pole  in  the  midst 
of  the  prairie  or  clearing.  Weddings  lasted  sel 
dom  less  than  twenty-four  hours.  The  guests 
assembled  in  the  morning.  After  some  such 
entertainment  as  a  race  for  a  whiskey  bottle  there 
was  a  mid-day  dinner,  followed  by  other  games, 
and  a  ball  at  night,  after  which  the  bride  and 
groom  withdrew,  one  after  the  other,  followed  by 
jokes  and  tricks  in  which  Lincoln  was  unmistak 
ably  a  leader. 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  15 

It  was  a  superstitious  community,  and  to  the 
very  day  of  his  death  Lincoln  never  failed  to 
believe  in  supernatural  portents.  If  a  dog  ran 
directly  across  the  hunter's  path,  bad  luck  would 
follow  unless  the  little  fingers  were  hooked  to 
gether  and  vigorously  pulled  as  long  as  the  dog 
remained  in  sight ;  charmed  twigs  pointed  to 
springs  and  buried  treasure;  faith  doctors  with 
their  mysterious  ceremonies  wrought  cures.  If 
a  bird  alighted  in  the  window,  one  of  the  family 
would  die ;  a  horse  breathing  on  a  child  gave 
whooping  cough ;  for  good  luck  rails  must  be 
split  in  the  early  part  of  the  day  or  in  the  light 
of  the  moon,  roots,  such  as  potatoes,  planted  in 
the  dark  of  the  moon,  but  plants  which  bore  fruit 
above  ground  in  the  light  of  that  orb ;  if  a  fence 
was  not  made  in  the  light  of  the  moon  it  would 
sink ;  and  Friday  was  fatal  to  every  enterprise. 

What  Lincoln  thought  of  his  surroundings  at 
this  time  can  never  be  known.  To  a  campaign 
biographer  he  said,  with  his  usual  distaste  for  - 
this  subject,  that  his  early  life  presented  nothing 
but  "  the  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor." 
Nothing  but  a  temporary,  conventional,  or  politic 
mood  is  shown  by  his  remark  to  a  young  man 
introduced  to  him  in  1847:  "  I  do  not  think  you 
would  succeed  at  splitting  rails.  That  was  my 
occupation  at  your  age,  and  I  do  not  think  I 
have  taken  as  much  pleasure  in  anything  else 


16  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

from  that  day  to  this."  Nor  do  we  know  much 
of  the  political  opinions  left  in  him  by  his  medi 
tations  and  his  Gentry ville  reading  and  talking. 
One  of  the  earlier  accounts  shows  him  fond  of 
singing,  without  musical  ability  but  with  zest, 
not  only  hymns  but  such  political  reflections  as 

this :  - 

"  Let  auld  acquaintance  be  forgot 

And  never  brought  to  mind, 
May  Jackson  be  our  President, 
And  Adams  left  behind." 

Those  who  owned  slaves  in  the  primitive  com 
munity  assumed  superiority  to  those  who  had 
none ;  but  questionings  about  the  peculiar  insti 
tutions  were  in  the  air,  the  contest  in  favor  of 
excluding  slavery  having  been  settled  only  about 
the  time  the  Lincolns  moved  to  Indiana,  so  that 
its  echoes  must  have  resounded  in  the  Gentryville 
grocery.  In  1822,  when  Lincoln  was  thirteen,  an 
abolition  newspaper  was  started  about  one  hun 
dred  miles  from  the  village,  and  during  his  whole 
boyhood  and  youth  there  was  plenty  to  lead  his 
mind,  at  least  occasionally,  onto  the  topic. 

The  talkative  youth  presented  a  pictorial  ap 
pearance,  dressed  in  coat,  trousers,  and  moccasins 
of  tanned  deer  hide;  for  although  the  habit  of 
wearing  garments  of  fur  and  wool  dyed  with  the 
juice  of  the  butternut  or  white  walnut  began 
about  the  time  he  reached  manhood,  and  the 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  17 

hides  of  cattle  began  to  be  tanned,  for  a  long 
time  only  the  women  indulged  in  such  luxuries, 
and  Lincoln  was  not  the  person  to  take  the  lead 
in  elegance.  Doubtless  he,  like  his  neighbors, 
looked  upon  split-log  Mitchell,  the  man  whose 
cabin  was  made  of  square  hewn  timbers,  instead 
of  round  logs  with  the  bark  on,  as  a  good  deal 
of  a  snob.  The  most  ungainly  and  crude  in  the 
whole  collection,  Lincoln  alone  possessed  the 
sacred  fire  that  drove  him,  not  only  to  every 
book,  and  with  the  rest  of  the  men,  gun  on  arm, 
to  the  itinerant  preacher  and  his  cabin  church ; 
but  alone  to  the  court-house,  held  in  a  double 
cabin,  in  these  days  when  the  grand  jury  sat  on 
a  log  in  the  woods  and  all  the  petit  jurors  wore 
side  knives  and  moccasins.  These  habits  made 
him  a  better  and  better  talker  at  the  village  store, 
where  his  humor,  knowledge,  and  inherited  nar 
rative  gift  were  always  welcome.  His  appear 
ance  encouraged  the  humorous  point  of  view. 
Tall,  lanky,  sallow,  and  dark,  slightly  stooping, 
with  a  careless  mop  of  hair,  tanned  clothes  flung 
on,  he  was  then  what  a  young  lawyer  described 
later  as  "  the  ungodliest  sight  I  ever  saw."  Not 
only  humor,  but  loneliness  and  melancholy  were 
encouraged  by  his  lack  of  outer  charm,  —  a  sad 
ness  perhaps  bequeathed  to  him  with  the  blood 
of  the  mother  he  scarcely  knew.  Naturally,  he 
became  a  satirist,  and  used  his  gifts  of  ridicule 


1 8  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

and  rough  verse  on  those  by  whom  he  was 
treated  inconsiderately.  A  family  named  Grigsby 
being  among  the  offenders,  he  wrote  a  "  chroni 
cle  "  about  them,  with  consequences  which  showed 
not  only  his  powers  but  his  prudence.  When  the 
chronicle  was  found  by  one  of  the  family  where 
the  author  had  carefully  dropped  it,  Billy,  the 
eldest,  challenged  him  to  fight  with  fists.  When 
the  combatants  and  their  friends  reached  the 
battle-ground,  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Gentryville, 
the  magnanimous  Lincoln  remarked  that  as  he 
was  the  superior  of  Billy  in  all  enumerable  re 
spects  he  would  make  a  fairer  contest  by  dele 
gating  his  step-brother  John  Johnson  to  represent 
the  family.  John  was  speedily  on  his  back,  and 
the  astute  Lincoln,  claiming  a  foul,  hauled  Billy 
off,  swung  a  whiskey  bottle  over  his  head,  and,  as 
the  legend  goes,  declared  that  he  was  the  big 
buck  of  the  lick,  able  without  difficulty  to  thrash 
Billy.  Billy  admitted  as  much,  and  offered  to 
produce  equality  by  fighting  with  pistols,  but  his 
opponent  intelligently  remarked  that  he  did  not 
care  to  fool  away  his  life  on  the  chances  of  a 
single  shot. 

The  other  side  of  his  nature,  the  deep,  sym 
pathetic,  honest  side,  which  went  with  the  healthy 
violence  of  taste  and  body,  comes  out  in  another 
anecdote  of  the  same  period.  His  younger  sister 
Matilda,  against  the  orders  of  her  mother,  secretly 


ORIGIN   AND   CHILDHOOD  19 

followed  early  one  morning  when  he  was  starting 
to  clear  a  piece  of  wood,  his  axe  in  his  hand. 
Softly  stealing  up  behind  him  the  girl  sprung 
upon  his  back,  threw  her  arms  about  his  neck,  and 
brought  him  backward  to  the  earth.  The  falling 
axe  cut  her  ankle.  As  they  were  doing  what  they 
could  with  the  wound  the  frightened  Matilda  won 
dered  how  she  could  escape  the  mother's  detec-x 
tion,  but  her  brother  advised  her  to  confess  frankly 
to  the  whole  truth,  —  the  first  tale  we  have  of  the 
trait  which  afterward  made  him  Honest  Abe. 

A  less  elevated  instance  of  his  desire  to  help 
others  is  connected  with  Crawford's  school.  There 
is  conflicting  evidence  about  his  orthographical 
abilities,  but  they  seem  to  have  surpassed  those  of 
his  neighbors,  so  that  he  led  in  the  spelling  class. 
At  any  rate  he  could  spell  "  defied,"  and  his  school 
mate  Kate  Roby,  who  could  not,  tells  a  story  of 
the  consequences.  The  word  "  defied  "  had  been 
given  out  by  Schoolmaster  Crawford,  but  had  been 
misspelled  several  times  when  it  came  Miss  Roby's 
turn.  "  Abe  stood  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
room,"  said  she  in  1865,  "and  was  watching  me.^ 
I  began  d-e-f- ,  and  then  I  stopped,  hesitating 
whether  to  proceed  with  an  i  or  a  y.  Looking  up, 
I  beheld  Abe,  a  grin  covering  his  face,  and  point 
ing  with  his  index  finger  to  his  eye.  I  took  the 
hint,  spelled  the  word  with  an  i,  and  it  went 
through  all  right." 


20  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

There  are  no  real  tales  of  sentimental  experi 
ences  in  these  years,  but  a  direction  in  which  he 
sometimes  dreamed  is  painted  in  an  interview 
with  a  Springfield  editor.  It  was  a  rainy  day,  and 
Lincoln,  sitting  with  his  feet  on  the  window-sill, 
his  eyes  on  the  street,  watching  the  rain,  suddenly 
looked  up  and  said  :  — 

"  Did  you  ever  write  out  a  story  in  your  mind  ? 
I  did  when  I  was  a  little  codger.  One  day  a 
wagon  with  a  lady  and  two  girls  and  a  man  broke 
down  near  us,  and  while  they  were  fixing  up,  they 
cooked  in  our  kitchen.  The  woman  had  books 
and  read  us  stories,  and  they  were  the  first  I  ever 
had  heard.  I  took  a  great  fancy  to  one  of  the 
girls ;  and  when  they  were  gone  I  thought  of  her 
a  great  deal,  and  one  day  when  I  was  sitting  out 
in  the  sun  by  the  house  I  wrote  out  a  story  in 
my  mind.  I  thought  I  took  my  father's  horse 
and  followed  the  wagon,  and  finally  I  found  it, 
and  they  were  surprised  to  see  me.  I  talked  with 
the  girl  and  persuaded  her  to  elope  with  me ;  and 
that  night  I  put  her  on  my  horse,  and  we  started 
off  across  the  prairie.  After  several  hours  we 
came  to  a  camp ;  and  when  we  rode  up  we  found 
it  was  the  one  we  had  left  a  few  hours  before,  and 
we  went  in.  The  next  night  we  tried  again,  and 
the  same  thing  happened  —  the  horse  came  back 
to  the  same  place ;  and  then  we  concluded  that 
we  ought  not  to  elope.  I  stayed  until  I  had  per- 


ORIGIN    AND    CHILDHOOD  21 

suaded  her  father  to  give  her  to  me.  I  always 
meant  to  write  that  story  out  and  publish  it,  and 
I  began  once;  but  I  concluded  it  was  not  much 
of  a  story.  But  I  think  that  was  the  beginning 
of  love  with  me." 


CHAPTER   II 

EARLY    EXPERIMENTS    IN    LIFE 

WHEN  Lincoln  was  nearly  twenty-one  years  of 
age,  his  father,  discouraged  by  another  epidemic  of 
the  milk-sick,  found  occasion  to  move.  He  sold 
most  of  what  belonged  to  the  various  branches  of 
his  family,  aggregating  thirteen  persons,  and  put 
the  rest  into  one  wagon  drawn  by  four  oxen,  who 
started  off  with  their  load  in  March,  1830.  The 
driver  was  Abraham,  but  he  was  not  content  with 
one  occupation.  He  had  saved  over  $30,  and  be 
fore  leaving  Gentryville  he  invested  it  all  in  arti 
cles  which  might  be  of  use  to  the  inhabitants  of 
villages  through  which  they  were  to  pass.  "  A 
set  of  knives  and  forks  was  the  largest  item 
entered  on  the  bill,"  says  Captain  Jones,  the 
Gentryville  grocer ;  "  the  other  items  were  needles, 
pins,  thread,  buttons,  and  other  little  domestic 
necessities.  When  the  Lincolns  reached  their 
new  home,  near  Decatur,  Illinois,  Abraham  wrote 
back  to  my  father,  stating  that  he  had  doubled 
his  money  on  his  purchases  by  selling  them  along 
the  road.  Unfortunately  we  did  not  keep  that 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS    IN   LIFE  23 

letter,  not  thinking  how  highly  we  would  have 
prized  it  years  afterward." 

After  two  weeks  of  this  kind  of  travel  through 
the  prairies  and  scattered  villages,  the  thirteen  rela 
tives  landed  at  a  point  about  ten  miles  west  of  De- 
catur,  Macon  County,  Illinois,  a  spot  selected  by 
John  Hanks,  a  relative  who  already  lived  there. 
It  was  "  just  before  the  winter  of  the  deep  snow," 
which  is  accepted  as  a  dividing  line  that  makes 
the  Lincolns  pioneers.  They  speedily  built  a  log 
cabin,  in  which  they  resided  when  that  first  win 
ter  in  their  new  home  brought  them  snow  three 
feet  deep,  followed  by  rain  which  froze,  after  which 
the  mercury  remained  at  twelve  below  zero  for 
two  weeks.  It  was  at  Decatur  that  Lincoln  made 
the  first  oratorical  test  of  which  anything  is 
known.  A  man  came  to  town  and  made  a 
speech.  John  Hanks  thereupon  remarked  that 
"  Abe  could  beat  it."  John  turned  down  a  box, 
Lincoln  mounted  it,  and  did  what  John  promised. 
The  subject  was  the  navigation  of  the  Sangamon 
River. 

That  river  saw  the  beginning  of  the  first  event 
ful  trip  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  life.  After  spend 
ing  the  Illinois  winter  in  odd  jobs,  largely  rail- 
splitting,  for  his  father's  benefit,  the  legal  period 
for  his  emancipation  arrived.  After  the  sepa 
ration  Tom  moved  at  least  three  times,  and 
although  he  hereafter  counts  for  little,  he  will 


24  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

appear  later  briefly  in  Abraham's  life.  The 
young  man's  first  chance  grew  out  of  the  fact 
that  Denton  Offut,  a  business  man,  asked  John 
Hanks  to  take  a  boat-load  of  provisions  and 
stock  to  New  Orleans.  John  engaged  Lincoln 
and  his  stepbrother,  John  Johnson,  and  Offut  was 
to  pay  fifty  cents  a  day  besides  a  sum  of  $60. 
Lincoln  and  Hanks  started  in  a  canoe  down  the 
Sangamon  River  in  March,  1831,  and  landed  at 
what  is  now  Jamestown,  five  miles  east  of  Spring 
field,  where  they  were  joined  by  Johnson,  and 
all  three  went  to  Springfield  to  see  Offut.  That 
enterprising  person  had  not  prepared  a  boat,  so 
the  three  young  men  constructed  it  themselves, 
taking  "  Congress  land "  timber  and  using  the 
machinery  of  a  neighboring  mill.  In  four  weeks 
it  was  ready,  and  the  venturesome  journey  was 
begun.  It  was  full  of  novelty,  full  of  instruction, 
fun,  and  variety.  A  passing  magician  offered  to 
cook  eggs  in  Lincoln's  hat.  The  owner  hesitated, 
but  finally  lent  it,  and  explained  that  his  delay 
"  was  out  of  respect  for  the  eggs,  not  for  my  hat." 
When  they  reached  New  Salem,  April  19,  the 
boat  stranded  on  Rutledge's  mill-dam,  and  hung 
helplessly  over  it  for  a  day  and  a  night.  It  was 
the  ingenious  Lincoln  who  finally  solved  the 
difficulty.  He  had  the  goods  removed  to  an 
other  boat,  and  after  their  craft  was  empty  he 
bored  a  hole  in  the  end  which  projected  over  the 


EARLY    EXPERIMENTS    IN    LIFE  25 

dam,  thus  allowing  the  water  which  had  leaked 
in  to  run  out,  and  the  boat  slid  over.  The  com 
pany  proceeded.  At  Blue  Banks  it  was  neces 
sary  'to  take  on  board  a  number  of  hogs,  but 
these  animals  proved  refractory,  turning  and 
rushing  past  the  men  who  were  endeavoring  to 
drive  them  into  the  boat.  Lincoln  therefore 
suggested  that  their  eyes  be  sewed  shut,  and  he 
held  the  head  and  Hanks  the  tail  while  Offut 
accomplished  the  operation.  The  hogs,  not  so 
easily  discouraged,  stood  still,  until  the  navigators 
carried  them  one  by  one  to  their  appointed  place. 
The  many-colored  trip  down  the  Mississippi 
ended  early  in  May  in  the  arrival  of  the  party  in 
New  Orleans.  As  it  was  Lincoln's  first  experi 
ence  in  a  real  city,  and  as  he  stayed  until  June, 
his  mind  must  have  received  an  avalanche  of  im 
pressions,  but  nothing  of  interest  has  come  down 
to  us  except  a  story,  hopelessly  exaggerated  in 
the  telling,  of  Lincoln's  indignation  at  seeing  a 
slave  auction  at  which  a  vigorous  and  comely 
mulatto  girl  who  was  being  sold  had  her  flesh 
pinched  and  was  made  to  trot  up  and  down  to 
show  her  soundness,  like  a  horse.  In  June  the 
four  travellers  took  a  steamboat  up  the  river,  dis 
embarking  at  St.  Louis,  where  Offut  remained; 
Lincoln  and  his  other  two  companions  starting 
across  Illinois  on  foot.  At  Edwardsville  Hanks 
branched  off  toward  Springfield,  while  Lincoln 


26  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

and  Johnson  followed  the  road  to  Coles  County, 
to  which  the  father  Thomas  had  meantime  moved. 
Lincoln  stopped  there  a  short  time,  not  doing 
anything  more  important  than  winning  a  victory 
from  a  well-known  wrestler.  In  August  he  re 
turned  to  New  Salem,  as  he  was  under  engage 
ment  to  help  dispose  of  a  stock  of  goods  which 
had  been  purchased  by  Offut.  Awaiting  their 
arrival  he  spent  the  life  of  an  active  but  social 
village  man  of  comparative  leisure,  interrupted 
by  a  few  stray  bits  of  work.  Shortly  after  his 
return  he  was  hanging  about  the  polls  on  election 
day  when  Schoolmaster  Graham,  the  clerk,  wishing 
a  substitute  for  his  sick  assistant,  asked  Lincoln 
if  he  could  write.  "  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  I  can 
make  a  few  rabbit  tracks."  He  also  piloted  a  fam 
ily  on  a  flatboat  down  the  rivers  to  Beardstown. 

During  his  leisure  he  accomplished  at  least  an 
increase  of  reputation  for  personal  prowess  by  a 
wrestling  match  with  one  Jack  Armstrong,  leader 
of  a  gang  of  ordinary  western  toughs,  known  as 
the  Clary  Grove  boys.  On  an  attempt  at  foul 
play  Lincoln,  waxing  indignant,  seized  Jack  in 
his  long  arms  and  shook  him  readily.  He  also 
showed  his  good  humor  and  tact  by  making  him 
a  friend,  and  later  in  life  he  saved  one  of  the 
Armstrong  family  from  the  gallows.  He  also 
successfully  taught  Jack  the  golden  rule  in  prac 
tice.  Armstrong  applied  bad  names  to  a  stranger, 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS    IN    LIFE  27 

who  thereupon  backed  to  a  woodpile,  seized  a 
weapon,  and  knocked  his  insulter  down.  When 
Jack  was  preparing  for  vengeance  Lincoln  asked 
him  what  he  would  do  himself  if  some  one  called 
him  unpleasant  names. 

"  Whip  him,  by  -     — ,"  said  Armstrong. 

"  Well,"  said  Lincoln,  in  substance,  "  this 
stranger  was  right  on  your  own  principles." 

Even  after  Offut's  return  and  Lincoln's  instal 
ment  behind  the  counter  of  the  store,  he  did  not 
lack  leisure.  On  the  advice  of  Mentor  Graham 
he  procured  Kirkham's  grammar  from  a  man  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  he  also  studied  mathe 
matics.  He  used  to  walk  miles  for  a  chance  to 
argue  at  debating  clubs.  His  intelligence,  humor, 
and  honesty  had  already  made  him  popular.  The 
grocery  was  full  alike  of  his  jokes  and  of  his 
principles.  He  disliked  waiting  on  women,  but 
he  took  a  man  who  swore  in  the  store,  when 
women  were  present,  and  rubbed  srnartweed  in 
his  eyes  until  his  will  was  broken.  He  was  also 
extremely  punctilious  in  weights  and  change. 
Political  discussion  was  his  delight.  In  the  un 
certainty  of  parties  his  position  cannot  be  pre 
cisely  fixed  at  any  one  time.  He  was  probably 
in  succession  "  a  whole-hog  man,"  a  "  nominal 
Jackson  man,"  and  a  Whig.  The  nominal  Jack 
son  men  often  voted  with  the  Whigs,  and,  as 
Lincoln  said  later,  he  naturally  "  drifted "  into 


28  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  party  along  with  his  immediate  associates. 
In  March,  1832,  he  felt  strong  enough  to  an 
nounce  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  General 
Assembly.  In  accordance  with  the  custom  of 
the  locality  the  youthful  politician  published  a 
circular,  giving  his  general  opinions,  astutely 
putting  most  emphasis  on  one  which  pleased 
local  interest.  These  handbills  were  distributed 
among  the  voters,  after  grammatical  errors  had 
been  corrected,  at  Lincoln's  request,  by  a  friend. 
A  few  extracts  on  the  various  topics  covered,  will 
best  speak  for  themselves. 

"  Yet,  however  desirable  an  object  the  construction 
of  a  railroad  through  our  country  may  be;  however 
high  our  imaginations  may  be  heated  at  thoughts  of  it 
—  there  is  always  a  heart-appalling  shock  accompanying 
the  amount  of  its  cost,  which  forces  us  to  shrink  from 
our  pleasing  anticipations.  The  probable  cost  of  this 
contemplated  railroad  is  estimated  at  $290,000  ;  the  bare 
statement  of  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  sufficient  to  justify 
the  belief  that  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon  River 
is  an  object  much  better  suited  to  our  infant  resources." 
********* 

"  It  appears  that  the  practice  of  loaning  money  at 
exorbitant  rates  of  interest  has  already  been  opened  as 
a  field  for  discussion  ;  so  I  suppose  I  may  enter  upon 
it  without  claiming  the  honor,  or  risking  the  danger 
which  may  await  its  first  explorer.  It  seems  as  though 
we  are  never  to  have  an  end  to  this  baneful  and  corrod 
ing  system,  acting  almost  as  prejudicially  to  the  general 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS    IN    LIFE  29 

interests  of  the  community  as  a  direct  tax  of  several 
thousand  dollars  annually  laid  on  each  county  for  the 
benefit  of  a  few  individuals  only,  unless  there  be  a  law 
made  fixing  the  limits  of  usury.  A  law  for  this  pur 
pose,  I  am  of  opinion,  may  be  made  without  materially 
injuring  any  class  of  people.  In  cases  of  extreme  neces 
sity,  there  could  always  be  means  found  to  cheat  the 
law ;  while  in  all  other  cases  it  would  have  its  intended 
effect.  I  would  favor  the  passage  of  a  law  on  this  sub 
ject  which  might  not  be  very  easily  evaded.  Let  it  be 
such,  that  the  labor  and  difficulty  of  evading  it  could 
only  be  justified  in  cases  of  greatest  necessity. 

"  Upon  the  subject  of  education,  not  presuming  to 
dictate  any  plan  or  system  respecting  it,  I  can  only  say 
that  I  view  it  as  the  most  important  subject  which  we 
as  a  people  can  be  engaged  in.  That  every  man  may 
receive  at  least  a  moderate  education,  and  thereby  be 
enabled  to  read  the  histories  of  his  own  and  other  coun 
tries,  by  which  he  may  duly  appreciate  the  value  of  our 
free  institutions,  appears  to  be  an  object  of  vital  impor 
tance,  even  on  this  account  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
advantages  and  satisfaction  to  be  derived  from  all  being 
able  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and  other  works,  both  of 
a  religious  and  moral  nature,  for  themselves." 

********* 

"With  regard  to  existing  laws,  some  alterations  are 
thought  to  be  necessary.  Many  respectable  men  have 
suggested  that  our  estray  laws,  the  law  respecting  the 
issuing  of  executions,  the  road  law,  and  some  others,  are 
deficient  in  their  present  form,  and  require  alterations. 
But,  considering  the  great  probability  that  the  framers 
of  those  laws  were  wiser  than  myself,  I  should  prefer 


30  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

not  meddling  with  them,  unless  they  were  first  attacked 
by  others ;  in  which  case  I  should  feel  it  both  a  privilege 
and  a  duty  to  take  that  stand  which,  in  my  view,  might 
tend  most  to  the  advancement  of  justice. 

"  But,  fellow-citizens,  I  shall  conclude.  Considering 
the  great  degree  of  modesty  which  should  always  attend 
youth,  it  is  probable  I  have  already  been  more  presum 
ing  than  becomes  me.  However,  upon  the  subjects  of 
which  I  have  treated,  I  have  spoken  as  I  have  thought. 
I  may  be  wrong  in  regard  to  any  or  all  of  them ;  but 
holding  it  a  sound  maxim  that  it  is  better  only  some 
times  to  be  right  than  at  all  times  to  be  wrong,  so  soon 
as  I  discover  my  opinions  to  be  erroneous,  I  shall  be 
ready  to  renounce  .them. 

"  Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition. 
Whether  it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  I  have 
no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my 
fellow-men,  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem. 
How  far  I  shall  succeed  in  gratifying  this  ambition  is  yet 
to  be  developed.  I  am  young,  and  unknown  to  many  of 
you.  I  was  born,  and  have  ever  remained,  in  the  most 
humble  walks  of  life.  I  have  no  wealthy  or  popular  re 
lations  or  friends  to  recommend  me.  My  case  is  thrown 
exclusively  upon  the  independent  voters  of  the  country ; 
and,  if  elected,  they  will  have  conferred  a  favor  upon 
me  tor  which  I  shall  be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to 
compensate.  But,  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom 
shall  see  fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been 
too  familiar  with  disappointments  to  be  very  much 
chagrined. 

"  Your  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

"A.  LINCOLN. 

"NEW  SALEM,  March  9,  1832."  v 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS    IN    LIFE  31 

On  the  navigation  question  he  gave  many 
details.  His  emphasis  of  this  subject  was  part 
of  the  general  enthusiasm  of  a  growing  country 
seeking  trade  facilities,  and,  still  in  the  early 
spring,  before  the  election  came  on,  this  enthu 
siasm  was  whetted  by  the  trip  of  the  first  steam 
boat  which  had  ever  gone  down  the  Sangamon 
River,  a  feat  which  stirred  the  imagination  of 
all  the  business  men  with  visions  of  what  might 
happen  now  that  the  stream  was  proved  to  be 
navigable.  Lincoln  was  one  of  a  number  of  citi 
zens  who  went  to  meet  and  welcome  this  boat, 
the  Talisman,  at  Beardstown,  amid  great  excite 
ment.  Rowan  Herndon,  who  was  chosen  to  pilot 
the  steamer  from  near  Springfield  to  the  Illi -i:  ' 
River,  which  he  did  at  an  average  speed  of  four 
miles  a  day,  took  Lincoln  as  his  assistant,  and 
each  received  $40  for  the  job,  after  which  Lin 
coln  returned  to  New  Salem. 

Offut,  however,  was  led  away  from  that  town 
by  other  enterprises,  and  by  the  summer  of  1832 
Lincoln  was  out  of  a  job.  He  was,  therefore,  in 
the  humor  for  anything  when  the  Black  Hawk 
War  came  along.  The  chief  Black  Hawk,  in 
violation  of  a  treaty,  had  crossed  the  Mississippi 
and  marched  up  the  Rock  River  Valley  with 
about  five  hundred  Indians  on  horseback,  while 
the  squaws  and  children  went  up  the  river  in  ca 
noes.  Governor  Reynolds  of  Illinois  called  for 


32  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

one  thousand  mounted  volunteers  to  help  the 
United  States  troops  under  General  Atkinson  at 
Fort  Armstrong.  There  was  a  company  for  San- 
gamon  County  and  Lincoln,  seeing  nothing  bet 
ter  to  do,  the  election  being  still  distant,  enlisted. 
He  was  soon  chosen  captain  by  his  comrades. 
To  his  first  order  he  received  the  reply,  "  Go  to 
the  devil,  sir."  It  was  not  a  company  amenable 
to  discipline,  and  Captain  Lincoln  himself  seems 
to  have  taken  his  duties  lightly,  since  for  break 
ing  a  general  order  forbidding  the  discharge  of 
firearms  within  fifty  yards  of  camp  he  was  put 
under  arrest  and  stripped  of  his  sword  for  one 
day.  A  slightly  heavier  penalty  was  inflicted 
on  him  for  the  fault  of  his  subordinates,  who 
got  so  drunk  on  some  liquor  procured  from  the 
officers'  quarters  with  the  aid  of  a  tomahawk 
and  four  buckets,  that  they  were  incompetent 
when  a  marching  order  was  given.  Lincoln, 
who  was  ignorant  of  the  deed,  was  placed  under 
arrest  and  carried  a  wooden  sword  for  two 
days. 

His  technical  knowledge  was  naturally  slight. 
Marching  with  a  front  of  over  twenty  men  he 
wished  to  go  through  a  gate.  "  I  could  not,"  he 
says  himself,  "  remember  the  proper  word  of  com 
mand  for  getting  my  company  endwise,  so  that 
it  could  get  through  the  gate  ;  so,  as  we  came 
near  the  gate,  I  shouted,  '  This  company  is  dis- 


EARLY    EXPERIMENTS    IN    LIFE  33 

missed  for  two  minutes,  when  it  will  fall  in  again 
on  the  other  side  of  the  gate.' " 

One  day  a  helpless  old  Indian  strayed  into  the 
camp  with  a  letter  from  General  Cass.  The  vol 
unteers,  bitterly  hating  the  red  men,  wished  to 
kill  him  without  investigation,  but  Lincoln  saved 
his  life  and  discovered  that  he  was  genuinely 
recommended  by  the  general  and  entirely  trust 
worthy.  Another  piece  of  magnanimity  grew 
out  of  his  defeat  in  a  wrestling  match  with  a 
man  named  Thompson,  who  threw  him.  The 
friends  of  Lincoln  charged  unfairness,  but  Abe 
declared  that  his  opponent  had  acted  squarely 
and  proved  himself  the  better  man.  On  slighter 
evidence,  the  victor's  own,  there  is  a  story  that 
a  Quaker  named  Wilson  threw  Lincoln  twice 
out  of  three  times,  and  beat  him  in  a  race  for  a 
five-dollar  bill.  What  is  certain  is  that  he  was 
fond  of  wrestling,  very  strong,  and  so  competent 
that  he  was  always  backed  against  any  celebrity 
who  happened  to  be  accessible. 

As  Lincoln  was  not  in  any  of  the  engagements 
of  this  disgraceful  little  Indian  war,  it  has  little 
to  do  with  the  story  of  his  life.  When  the  vol 
unteers  were  mustered  out,  May  27  and  28,  he 
was  one  of  few  to  reenlist,  this  time  as  a  private 
in  Captain  Elijah  Iles's  company  of  Independent 
Rangers.  He  was  mustered  in  by  General  Rob 
ert  Anderson,  who  was  to  command  Fort  Sumter 


34  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

in  the  crucial  days  of  1861.  He  has  left  one  im 
pression  of  this  war.  After  a  skirmish  his  com 
pany  came  up  in  time  to  help  bury  five  dead. 

"  I  remember  just  how  those  men  looked,  as 
we  rode  up  the  little  hill  where  their  camp  was. 
The  red  light  of  the  morning  sun  was  streaming 
upon  them  as  they  lay  heads  toward  us  on  the 
ground.  And  every  man  had  a  round  red  spot 
on  the  top  of  his  head,  about  as  big  as  a  dollar, 
where  the  redskins  had  taken  his  scalp.  It  was 
frightful,  but  it  was  grotesque ;  and  the  red  sun 
light  seemed  to  paint  everything  all  over."  He 
paused,  as  if  recalling  the  picture,  and  added,  "  I 
remember  that  one  man  had  buckskin  breeches 


on." 


Lincoln's  company  was  disbanded,  July  10, 
at  Whitewater,  Wisconsin,  and  as  his  horse  had 
been  stolen  he  walked  most  of  the  way  to  Peoria, 
Illinois,  where  he  and  a  companion  bought  a 
canoe,  paddled  down  the  Illinois  River  to 
Havana,  sold  it,  and  walked  to  New  Salem. 
The  election  was  at  hand,  and  Lincoln  lost  no 
time  in  beginning  political  work  of  the  or 
dinary  kind,  including  some  stump  speeches. 
At  the  first  of  these,  it  is  related,  he  inter 
rupted  himself  to  stop  by  forcible  interference 
a  fight  in  the  audience  in  which  a  friend  was 
being  worsted  by  an  opponent.  He  was  run 
ning  essentially  as  a  Whig  in  a  Democratic 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS   IN   LIFE  35 

precinct,  and  he  came  in  third  on  a  list  of 
twelve.  As  he  says  in  his  autobiography,  "  This 
was  the  only  time  Abraham  was  ever  defeated 
on  a  direct  vote  of  the  people."  His  gift  of 
popularity  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  in  his 
own  precinct  only  13  votes  were  cast  against 
him,  10  not  voting  for  representative,  and  the 
12  candidates,  out  of  a  total  vote  of  300,  stand 
ing  thus:  Abraham  Lincoln,  277;  John  T. 
Stuart,  182;  William  Carpenter,  136;  John 
Dawson,  105 ;  E.  D.  Taylor,  88 ;  Archer  D. 
Herndon,  84 ;  Peter  Cartwright,  62 ;  Achilles 
Morris,  27;  Thomas  M.  Neal,  21;  Edward 
Robeson,  15;  Zachariah  Peters,  4;  Richard 
Dunston,  4. 

This  defeat  raised  the  necessity  of  work  again, 
and  Lincoln,  after  a  little  thought  of  utilizing 
his  physical  strength  as  a  blacksmith,  and  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  secure  a  clerkship  in 
any  of  the  four  New  Salem  stores,  went  into 
business  in  a  more  independent  position  by 
buying  from  Rowan  Herndon  his  half  interest 
in  the  store  which  he  owned  with  William  F. 
Berry.  The  terms  were  liberal,  Herndon  trust 
ing  Lincoln's  honesty  and  taking  the  notes 
of  the  two  owners.  Almost  immediately  one  of 
the  rival  merchants,  Reuben  Radford,  by  an 
attack  from  Clary's  Grove,  whose  boys  were  so 
hostile  to  him  that  they  took  a  night  to  smash 


36  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

his  doors  and  windows  and  damage  his  goods, 
was  put  into  a  mood  for  selling  out,  which  he 
did  to  William  G.  Green  for  a  $400  note.  At 
Green's  request  Lincoln  made  an  inventory 
and  then  offered  him  #650,  and  the  deal  went 
through,  as  usual  in  that  vicinity,  on  credit. 
Notes  bought  and  assigned  also  brought  about 
the  final  move,  the  absorption  of  the  third  and 
last  store  by  Berry  and  Lincoln. 

The  consolidated  business  did  not  thrive. 
Berry  drank  while  Lincoln  read  and  studied. 
One  of  his  branches  was  law,  an  interest  which 
had  been  dormant  since  his  departure  from 
Indiana.  "  One  day,"  related  Lincoln  after  his 
first  nomination,  "  a  man  who  was  migrating 
to  the  west  drove  up  in  front  of  my  store  with 
a  wagon  which  contained  his  family  and  house 
hold  plunder.  He  asked  me  if  I  would  buy 
an  old  barrel  for  which  he  had  no  room  in  his 
wagon,  and  which  he  said  contained  nothing 
of  special  value.  I  did  not  want  it,  but  to 
oblige  him  I  bought  it,  and  paid  him,  I  think, 
half  a  dollar  for  it.  Without  further  examina 
tion,  I  put  it  away  in  the  store,  and  forgot  all 
about  it.  Some  time  after,  in  overhauling 
things,  I  came  upon  the  barrel,  and  emptying 
it  upon  the  floor  to  see  what  it  contained,  I 
found  at  the  bottom  of  the  rubbish  a  complete 
edition  of  Blackstone's  '  Commentaries.'  I  be- 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS   IN    LIFE  37 

gan  to  read  those  famous  works,  and  I  had 
plenty  of  time;  for  during  the  long  summer 
days,  when  the  farmers  were  busy  with  their 
crops,  my  customers  were  few  and  far  between. 
The  more  I  read,  the  more  intensely  interested  I 
became.  Never  in  my  whole  life  was  my  mind 
so  thoroughly  absorbed.  I  read  until  I  de 
voured  them." 

The  lack  of  business  prosperity  led  the  part 
ners  to  take  out  March  6,  1833,  a  tavern  license, 
to  make  it  possible,  or  easier,  to  retail  their 
liquors.  To  help  perform  this  labor  they  hired 
a  clerk,  Daniel  Green  Burner,  who  has  made 
the  following  statement  about  the  business :  — 

"  The  store  building  of  Berry  and  Lincoln  was  a  frame 
building,  not  very  large,  one  story  in  height,  and  con 
tained  two  rooms.  In  the  little  back  room  Lincoln  had 
a  fireplace  and  a  bed.  There  is  where  we  slept.  I 
clerked  in  the  store  through  the  winter  of  1833-34,  UP 
to  the  ist  of  March.  While  I  was  there  they  had  noth 
ing  for  sale  but  liquors.  They  may  have  had  some  gro 
ceries  before  that,  but  I  am  certain  they  had  none  then. 
I  used  to  sell-  whiskey  over  their  counter  at  six  cents  a 
glass  —  and  charged  it  too.  N.  A.  Garland  started  a  store, 
and  Lincoln  wanted  Berry  to  ask  his  father  for  a  loan,  so 
they  could  buy  out  Garland ;  but  Berry  refused,  saying 
this  was  one  of  the  last  things  he  would  think  of  doing." 

This  transformation  into  a  liquor  business  did 
not  work  either,  and  Lincoln  was  glad  enough 


38  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

to  be  appointed  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  on 
May  7  of  this  year  1833,  by  a  Democratic 
administration,  the  office  being  too  insignifi 
cant  to  make  politics  an  objection,  in  Lincoln's 
own  explanation.  The  mail  arrived  on  horse 
back  once  a  week,  and  the  new  postmaster 
carried  it  in  his  hat  until  he  met  the  recipients 
or  was  able  to  call  at  their  dwellings.  The 
newspapers  he  was  permitted  to  open  and  read 
as  soon  as  they  arrived.  All  this  was  pleasant, 
but  not  immediately  very  lucrative,  so  the  post 
master  and  storekeeper  indulged  in  odd  jobs. 
He  split  rails  and  helped  at  the  mill.  As 
Rowan  Herndon,  with  whom  he  had  been 
living,  removed  to  the  country,  Lincoln  took 
up  at  the  tavern  kept  by  James  Rutledge,  who 
had  a  daughter  named  Ann.  It  was  a  small 
log  house,  covered  with  clapboards,  containing 
four  rooms.  He  stuck  to  Blackstone  and  got 
hold  of  Chitty  and  other  law  books.  He  was 
no  observer  of  times  or  places.  One  day  an 
old  man,  who  had  given  him  some  of  his 
irregular  jobs,  saw  him  on  the  woodpile,  bare 
foot,  in  his  flax  or  tow-linen  pantaloons,  several 
inches  short,  probably  with  one  suspender,  no 
vest  or  coat,  calico  shirt,  and  straw  hat  without 
a  band,  his  big,  rough,  gentle  face  bent  over  a 
book. 

"  What  are  you  reading  ?  "  asked  the  old  man. 


EARLY   EXPERIMENTS   IN   LIFE  39 

"  I'm  not  reading,  I'm  studying,"  replied  Lin 
coln. 

"Studying  what?" 

"Law,  sir." 

"  Great  God  Almighty  !  " 

And  the  old  man  passed  on. 

This  ungainly  young  man,  with  his  careless 
business  habits  and  lounging  ways,  who  slept  on 
the  store  counter  when  the  tavern  was  full,  was 
getting  on  in  real  preparation  for  life.  He  could 
soon  draw  deeds,  contracts,  and  mortgages  for  his 
neighbors.  He  frequently  got  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  but  charged  little  and  often  nothing. 
At  the  same  time  he  read  natural  science,  a  little 
history,  including  some  Gibbon,  and  apparently 
liked  to  skim  Mrs.  Lee  Hentz's  novels,  which 
were  popular  then,  and  which  he  could  borrow, 
though  he  said  later  he  seldom  or  never  read 
a  work  of  fiction  through.  Indeed,  reading  a 
thing  through  was  not  very  frequent  with  him. 
Shakespeare  and  Burns  he  seems  to  have  early 
become  familiar  with  in  parts,  but  not  to  any 
large  extent.  In  the  meantime  he  did  not  ne 
glect  relaxation,  but,  being  of  absolutely  sober 
habits,  relieved  his  spirits  by  free  stories,  trials  of 
strength,  and  miscellaneous  amusements  such  as 
umpiring  at  chicken  fights,  an  innocent  sporting 
tendency  which  was  later  used  against  him  by 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Behind,  in  his  spirit,  was 


40  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

something  quite  different  both  from  his  easy 
social  sport  with  men  and  from  his  legal  and 
political  ambition.  It  was  the  thought  of  Ann 
Rutledge,  the  daughter  at  the  tavern,  who  was 
engaged  to  another  man. 


CHAPTER  III 

BEGINNINGS  IN   POLITICS  AND   LOVE 

WHILE  the  affairs  of  the  store  were  growing 
steadily  worse,  Lincoln  received  an  offer  which 
enabled  him  to  make  more  money,  and  showed 
the  general  confidence  in  his  ability  and  in 
tegrity.  John  Calhoun,  the  county  surveyor, 
needing  a  deputy  in  the  summer  of  1833  to  help 
him  in  the  considerable  mass  of  work  created 
by  the  flood  of  immigration  in  the  prosperous 
county  of  Sangamon,  sent  a  friend  to  the  Salem 
postmaster  to  ask  if  he  would  take  the  place. 
Lincoln,  who  was  discovered  splitting  rails  in 
the  woods,  replied  that  he  would  see  Calhoun 
himself.  He  went  to  Springfield,  told  the  Demo 
cratic  surveyor  that  he  was  a  Whig,  and  that  he 
was  ignorant  of  surveying,  and  was  assured  by 
Calhoun  that  his  acceptance  would  be  no  politi 
cal  obligation,  and  that  time  for  learning  would 
be  allowed.  He  therefore  promised  to  be  ready 
as  soon  as  possible,  for  it  was  no  small  lift 
in  the  world  to  follow  a  profession  which  would 
pay  him  $3  a  day.  He  secured  all  the  books  on 
the  subjett  to  "be  had  in  the  neighborhood,  in 
cluding  Flint  and  Gibson's  treatise,  received  help 

41 


42  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

from  his  enthusiastic  friend  Mentpr  Graham,  and 
worked  intensely  day  and  night  for  six  weeks. 
At  the  end  of  that  short  time  he  presented  him 
self  to  Calhoun,  and  soon  showed  that  he  was 
sufficiently  prepared  by  rapidly  earning  a  repu 
tation  for  accurate  work.  He  was  employed  by 
the  county  in  surveying  roads  and  by  private 
individuals  for  farms  and  probably  for  some  of 
the  numerous  paper  cities  built  by  speculators. 
Conditions  were  still  somewhat  primitive,  and 
there  is  a  tale  that  he  sometimes  used  a  grape 
vine  instead  of  a  chain. 

This  lucrative  employment  came  in  the  nick 
of  time.  It  saved  him  from  being  altogether 
swamped  in  the  misfortunes  of  Berry  and  Lin 
coln.  The  firm  was  getting  more  and  more 
deeply  into  debt,  and  early  in  1834  the  store, 
which  had  been  entirely  managed  for  some  time 
by  Berry,  was  sold  on  credit  to  brothers  named 
Trent,  who  failed  before  their  notes  became  due. 
Berry  died  soon  after,  thus  throwing  on  Lincoln 
an  indebtedness  so  large  that  he  called  it  the 
national  debt.  He  had  besides  to  help  his  mi 
grating  father,  now  in  Coles  County,  and  he  had 
private  debts,  one  of  them  for  a  horse,  necessary 
in  his  surveying.  For  this  animal  he  had  given 
$50  and  had  settled  all  but  $10  when  he  was 
sued  and  paid  the  rest.  To  the  firm's  creditors 
he  said  that  if  they  would  let  him  alone  he  would 


BEGINNINGS    IN   POLITICS   AND   LOVE  43 

give  them  all  he  could  make  over  living  expenses, 
and  they  consented.  Fourteen  years  after,  when 
he  was  in  the  national  Congress,  he  was  sending 
part  of  his  salary  to  his  law  partner  for  this 
purpose,  which  was  finally  accomplished.  In 
all  that  time  only  one  of  the  firm  creditors  an 
noyed  him.  One  Van  Bergen  sued  him  on  a 
note  and  obtained  judgment.  The  sheriff  levied 
on  his  surveying  instruments,  horse,  saddle,  and. 
bridle,  and  sold  them.  James  Short,  a  friend, 
saying  nothing  to  Lincoln  in  advance,  attended 
the  sheriff's  sale,  bought  the  goods  for  $120, 
and  returned  them  to  Abraham.  Lincoln  repaid 
the  money  with  interest,  and  about  thirty  years 
later,  when  Mr.  Short  was  in  pecuniary  trouble, 
the  President  sent  him  an  appointment  as  Indian 
agent. 

Lincoln,  with  his  debts  on  his  back,  kept  indus 
triously  ahead.  His  work  left  him  time  to  read 
Paine,  Volney,  and  Voltaire,  according  to  Mr. 
Herndon,  who  makes  him  out  quite  an  argumen 
tative  disbeliever.  He  was  evidently  very  popular 
with  his  neighbors,  being  social,  apt,  and  friendly, 
always  liking  to  give  homely  assistance  to  men  or 
women  alike.  Jack  Armstrong's  wife  relates  that 
he  used  to  rock  the  cradle  while  she  prepared  the 
meal,  at  which  he  was  always  welcome  when  he 
happened  in.  In  this  placid  business  and  sociable 
life  he  continued  until  the  next  summer,  1834, 


44 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


when  he  decided  to  try  again  for  the  legislature, 
this  time  distinctly  as  a  Whig.  He  made  all  the 
speeches  he  could  until  August,  when  he  was 
elected  one  of  four  assemblymen  from  Sangamon 
County.  He  was  the  youngest  member  but  one 
of  that  legislature.  The  vote  was:  Dawson,  1390; 
Lincoln,  1376;  Carpenter,  1170;  Stuart,  1164. 
From  that  time  to  December  i,  when  the  legisla 
ture  began,  Lincoln,  who  of  course  would  be  un 
able  to  do  so  much  surveying,  gave  special  attention 
to  the  law,  which  he  had  tried  spasmodically  be 
fore,  and  made  the  rapid  progress  due  to  his 
energy,  his  popularity,  and  the  lack  of  lawyers  in 
the  neighborhood. 

As  the  time  approached  to  go  to  Vandalia,  the 
state  capital,  seventy-five  miles  from  New  Salem, 
Lincoln  borrowed  money  to  buy  a  comparatively 
decent  suit.  It  is  said  that  his  first  candidacy 
provoked  some  jests,  for  he  was  an  ill-clothed  and 
awkward  figure  even  for  his  surroundings.  One 
witness  says :  "  Governor  Yates  told  me  that  the 
first  time  he  saw  Lincoln  was  at  New  Salem, 
where  he  was  lying  on  a  cellar  door,  in  the 
shade,  reading.  There  were  many  odd-looking 
specimens  of  humanity  in  that  region  in  those 
days,  but  Lincoln  exceeded  all  in  grotesqueness, 
oddity,  and  a  queer  style  of  dress ;  but  his  conver 
sation  showed  excellent  sense.  They  went  to 
dinner  at  Lincoln's  boarding  place,  which  was  a 


BEGINNINGS   IN   POLITICS   AND   LOVE  45 

rough  log  house,  with  a  puncheon  floor  and  a 
clapboard  roof:  the  dinner  was  bread  and  milk." 
Even  when  he  appeared  at  the  state  capital  he 
did  not  suggest  any  effete  aristocracy.  Vandalia 
was  a  big  town  for  him,  with  three  taverns,  four 
doctors,  five  lawyers,  two  newspapers,  and  several 
stores,  in  fact  all  the  complexity  of  a  metropolis. 
Lincoln  kept  pretty  quiet.  He  observed  the  large 
assortment  of  statesmen  with  whom  he  was  thrown, 
but  followed  his  habit  of  postponing  action  until 
he  was  at  home  in  a  new  situation.  There  were 
in  Vandalia  many  men  who  afterward  became 
prominent,  among  them  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
who  struck  Lincoln  as  "the  least  man  he  had 
ever  seen."  The  representative  from  Sangamon 
County  voted  for  the  principal  bills  of  the  session, 
chartering  a  state  bank  and  borrowing  half  a  mill 
ion  dollars  for  a  highway,  the  beginning  of  a  fever 
for  speculative  improvement  which  a  few  years 
later  reached  a  disastrous  climax.  He  naturally 
did  not  shine  on  his  committee,  that  of  public 
accounts  and  expenditures,  a  line  of  thought  in 
which  he  never  became  strong,  but  he  did  intro 
duce  and  carry  through  a  bill  limiting  the  juris 
diction  of  justices  of  the  peace;  made  a  motion 
to  change  the  rules  to  prevent  amendments  to  any 
bill  after  the  third  reading,  a  practice  which  was 
eventually  adopted  three  years  later;  and  intro 
duced  a  resolution  in  favor  of  securing  to  the 


46  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

state  a  part  of  the  proceeds  of  public  lands  within 
its  limits,  which  was  laid  on  the  table. 

With  this  modest  and  prudent  record  he 
returned,  in  the  spring  of  1835,  to  New  Salem, 
and  began  again  to  survey,  study  law,  and  dis 
tribute  letters.  The  first  thing  of  importance 
that  happened  to  him  was  not  worldly  but  inti 
mate.  He  found  that  Ann  Rutledge,  the  girl  of 
the  tavern,  was  in  trouble.  Her  fiance  had  gone 
away  about  a  year  before,  and  Ann  had  heard 
disquieting  rumors.  When  young  McNeill  settled 
in  New  Salem,  before  Lincoln  did,  he  had  shown 
such  business  ability  that  in  four  years  he  owned 
a  half  interest  in  a  prosperous  store  and  a  large 
farm  in  the  neighborhood.  Among  the  suitors 
for  the  beautiful  Ann  this  energetic  youth  easily 
won,  but  as  she  was  only  seventeen  the  marriage 
was  to  be  postponed.  After  a  long  engagement, 
late  in  1833,  about  the  time  Lincoln  left  for  Van- 
dalia,  McNeill  told  Ann  a  secret.  His  name,  he 
said,  was  really  McNamar,  and  he  had  changed  it 
to  keep  his  father's  reverses  from  following  him 
when  he  ran  away  from  his  Eastern  home  to  re 
trieve  the  family  fortunes.  He  now  wished  to  go 
East  to  look  up  the  relatives  whom  he  was  at  last 
able  to  help,  and  he  sold  his  interest  in  the  store 
before  starting.  On  his  return,  with  his  father 
and  mother,  Ann  and  he  would  be  married. 
Ann  believed  him,  but  as  months  passed  on  and 


BEGINNINGS    IN    POLITICS   AND    LOVE  47 

she  received  no  letters  she  told  her  secret,  and 
all  her  friends  met  the  story  with  convincing 
scepticism. 

Lincoln,  finding  on  his  return  from  Vandalia 
that  months  had  passed  with  no  news,  that  Ann 
was  sad  and  gossip  cruel,  took  heart  and  asked 
the  girl  to  be  his  wife.  She  consented  in  the 
spring  to  marry  him  when  another  year  had  en 
abled  her  to  have  an  autumn  and  winter  season 
in  a  Jacksonville  academy,  and  had  helped  him  to 
make  a  further  start  in  life. 

But  Ann  never  reached  the  academy.  As  the 
spring  and  summer  passed,  her  memories  haunted 
her.  What  she  felt  about  Lincoln  we  do  not 
know.  McNamar  was  on  her  conscience.  Had 
she  wronged  him  ?  Was  he  still  faithful  ?  Had 
she  every  right  to  love  him  in  spite  of  silence  ? 
She  fell  so  ill  that  Lincoln  was  kept  from  her 
presence,  and  again  we  can  only  conjecture  what 
this  exclusion  means.  Finally  hope  had  gone  and 
her  new  fiance  was  allowed  to  spend  an  hour 
with  her  shortly  before  her  death,  which  came 
August  25,  1835. 

Lincoln,  always  tending  toward  fits  of  gloom, 
had  his  mind  almost  unsettled  by  this  blow.  For 
the  sadness  that  marked  his  face  through  life 
many  reasons  have  been  given  by  those  who  knew 
him  best.  One  of  his  most  intelligent  friends 
believed  that  constipation  was  the  real  cause. 


48  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Others  find  it  inherited  from  his  unhappy  mother. 
Others  tell  of  the  gloom  of  pioneer  life,  the  desert 
spaces,  the  malaria,  the  loneliness,  the  absence  of 
opportunity  for  a  man  who  feels  his  powers  ready 
within  him.  Whatever  the  causes,  almost  all 
who  ever  knew  Lincoln  well  believed  that  the 
death  of  Ann  Rutledge  was  an  aggravation  of 
the  morbid  tendency.  She  was  the  loveliest  and 
most  lovable  woman  in  New  Salem.  Lincoln 
was  deeply  fond  of  her.  In  all  probability  her 
heart  was  never  fully  his,  but  he  had  reason  to 
hope  it  would  be.  Then  she  died,  and  two 
months  later  McNamar's  return,  with  proof  of  his 
honesty,  gave  a  final  touch  to  the  pioneer  tragedy. 
Lincoln,  in  one  fashion  or  another,  for  several 
years  loved  rather  readily,  seeming  in  a  mood  to 
offer  his  hand  and  heart  whenever  a  sympathetic 
relation  was  established,  but  in  the  case  of  Ann 
alone  was  the  feeling  deep.  He  and  his  friends 
feared  for  his  sanity.  As  long  as  five  or  six 
years  after  he  consulted  Dr.  Drake,  a  celebrated 
Cincinnati  doctor,  by  letter,  but  the  physician 
refused  to  give  an  opinion  without  a  personal 
interview,  and  Lincoln  was  unable  to  make  the 
trip.  To  a  fellow-member  of  the  legislature, 
within  two  years  after  the  death,  the  represent 
ative  from  Sangamon  said  that  although  he 
seemed  to  enjoy  life,  he  was  so  overcome  by 
depression,  whenever  he  was  alone,  that  he  no 


BEGINNINGS   IN   POLITICS   AND   LOVE  49 

longer  dared  to  carry  a  pocket-knife,  in  spite  of 
his  old-time  love  of  whittling.  After  the  first 
election  to  the  presidency  he  answered  his  old 
friend,  Isaac  Colgate,  who  asked  if  it  was  true  he 
ran  a  little  wild  about  the  Rutledge  matter :  "  I 
did  really.  I  ran  off  the  track.  It  was  my  first. 
I  loved  the  woman  dearly.  She  was  a  handsome 
girl ;  would  have  made  a  good,  loving  wife  ;  was 
natural,  and  quite  intellectual,  though  not  highly 
educated.  I  did  honestly  and  truly  love  the 
girl,  and  think  often,  often,  of  her  now."  To 
one  of  his  friends,  speaking  of  Concord  Cem 
etery,  seven  miles  from  New  Salem,  Lincoln 
said,  "  My  heart  is  buried  there."  There  was 
a  popular  belief  that  in  all  weathers  he  used 
to  sit  for  hours  alone  on  her  grave.  McNamar, 
who  saw  Lincoln  at  the  post-office,  says,  "  He 
seemed  desolate  and  sorely  distressed  ;  "  —  and 
McNamar,  himself,  within  a  year,  married  another 
woman. 

Apparently  it  was  this  experience  more  than 
any  one  other  which  fixed  the  habit  of  reciting 
lugubrious  verse,  half-way  between  doggerel  and 
poetry,  which  followed  him  through  life,  and  these 
effusions  represent  one  side  of  the  man's  personal 
nature  with  vividness.  One  of  them  has  been 
made  famous  as  his  favorite,  the  poem  which  he 
recited  for  some  thirty  years  at  every  opportunity. 
Part  of  it  is  :  — 


50  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

"  Oh  !  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ? 
Like  a  swift- fleeting  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave. 

"  The  leaves  of  the  oak  and  the  willow  shall  fade, 
Be  scattered  around,  and  together  be  laid ; 
And  the  young  and  the  old,  and  the  low  and  the  high, 
Shall  moulder  to  dust,  and  together  shall  lie. 

"  The  infant  a  mother  attended  and  loved  ; 
The  mother  that  infant's  affection  who  proved ; 
The  husband  that  mother  and  infant  who  blest,  — 
Each,  all,  are  away  to  their  dwellings  of  rest.  .  .  . 

"  So  the  multitude  goes,  like  the  flower  or  the  weed, 
That  withers  away  to  let  others  succeed ; 
So  the  multitude  comes,  even  those  we  behold, 
To  repeat  every  tale  that  has  often  been  told. 

"For  we  are  the  same  our  fathers  have  been ; 
We  see  the  same  sights  our  fathers  have  seen ; 
And  drink  the  same  stream,  we  view  the  same  sun, 
And  run  the  same  course  our  fathers  have  run. 

"  The  thoughts  we  are  thinking  our  fathers  would  think ; 
From  the  death  we  are  shrinking  our  fathers  would  shrink ; 
To  the  life  we  are  clinging  they  also  would  cling ; 
But  it  speeds  from  us  all  like  a  bird  on  the  wing. 

"  They  loved,  but  the  story  we  cannot  unfold ; 
They  scorned,  but  the  heart  of  the  haughty  is  cold ; 
They  grieved,  but  no  wail  from  their  slumber  will  come ; 
They  joyed,  but  the  tongue  of  their  gladness  is  dumb. 


BEGINNINGS    IN    POLITICS   AND   LOVE  51 

"They  died,  ay,  they  died  ;  we  things  that  are  now, 
That  walk  on  the  turf  that  lies  over  their  brow, 
And  make  in  their  dwellings  a  transient  abode, 
Meet  the  things  that  they  met  on  their  pilgrimage  road. 

"  Yea,  hope  and  despondency,  and  pleasure  and  pain, 
Are  mingled  together  in  sunshine  and  rain ; 
And  the  smile  and  the  tear,  the  song  and  the  dirge, 
Still  follow  each  other  like  surge  upon  surge. 

"  Tis  the  wink  of  an  eye,  'tis  the  draught  of  a  breath, 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  paleness  of  death, 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the  shroud,  — 
Oh,  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud?  " 

This  brand  of  melancholy  poetic  reflection  be 
came  such  a  large  and  settled  part  of  Lincoln's 
life  that  it  is,  next  to  his  wit,  perhaps  his  most 
famous  personal  trait.  Had  he  possessed  the 
poetic  faculty,  it  is  easy  to  see  what  kind  of  a 
poet  he  would  have  been.  Byron's  "dream" 
was  one  of  the  things  he  liked,  and  one  of  his 
prime  favorites  contained  these  thoughts  :  — 

"  Tell  me,  ye  winged  winds 
That  round  my  pathway  roar, 
Do  ye  not  know  some  spot 
Where  mortals  weep  no  more? 
Some  lone  and  pleasant  vale, 
Some  valley  in  the  west, 
Where,  free  from  toil  and  pain, 
The  weary  soul  may  rest? 
The  loud  wind  dwindled  to  a  whisper  low, 
And  sighed  for  pity  as  it  answered,  No. 


52  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

"  Tell  me,  thou  mighty  deep, 
Whose  billows  round  me  play, 
Know'st  thou  some  favored  spot, 
Some  island  far  away, 
Where  weary  man  may  find 
The  bliss  for  which  he  sighs  ; 
W'here  sorrow  never  lives 
And  friendship  never  dies  ? 
The  loud  waves  rolling  in  perpetual  flow 
Stopped  for  a  while  and  sighed  to  answer,  No. 


"And  thou,  serenest  moon, 
That  with  such  holy  face 
Dost  look  upon  the  Earth 
Asleep  in  Night's  embrace  — 
Tell  me,  in  all  thy  round 
Hast  thou  not  seen  some  spot 
Where  miserable  man 
Might  find  a  happier  lot? 
Behind  a  cloud  the  moon  withdrew  in  woe, 
And  a  voice  sweet  but  sad  responded,  No. 


"  Tell  me,  my  secret  soul, 
Oh,  tell  me,  Hope  and  Faith, 
Is  there  no  resting-place 
From  sorrow,  sin,  and  death  ? 
Is  there  no  happy  spot 
Where  mortals  may  be  blessed, 
Where  grief  may  find  a  balm 
And  weariness  a  rest  ? 

Faith,  Hope,  and  Love,  best  boon  to  mortals  given, 
Waved  their  bright  wings  and  whispered,  Yes,  in 
Heaven." 


BEGINNINGS   IN   POLITICS   AND   LOVE  53 

The  melancholy  which  increased  after  Ann 
Rutledge's  death,  however,  is  but  one  side  of  as 
enigmatical  a  character  as  is  known  to  history. 
If  the  great  President  is  ever  to  be  understood  as 
a  man,  it  must  be  by  reconciling  wonderful  sanity 
with  vagaries  almost  insane,  and  it  is  the  wilder 
and  queerer  side  of  his  nature  that  comes  to  the 
front  for  several  years  after  Ann's  death.  A 
woman  named  Mary  S.  Owens,  who  had  visited 
New  Salem  in  1833,  returned  in  1836.  The 
story  of  her  relation  to  Lincoln  rests  mostly  on 
her  own  evidence,  but  letters  from  him  are  suf 
ficient  to  give  it  a  singular  importance  in  any 
attempt  to  see  him  intimately.  This  lady  was 
the  object  of  Lincoln's  interest,  but  she  thought 
him  "  deficient  in  those  little  links  which  make 
up  the  chain  of  a  woman's  happiness."  She  also 
says,  "  I  thought  him  lacking  in  smaller  atten 
tions."  As  a  party  of  friends  were  riding  on 
horseback  one  day  he  failed  to  draw  aside  the 
branch  of  a  tree  which  the  other  men  had 
removed  for  their  women  companions.  Mary 
remonstrated,  and  her  cavalier  replied  that  he 
knew  she  was  plenty  smart  to  take  care  of  her 
self.  The  rest  of  the  story  belongs  to  a  slightly 
later  period. 

During  this  year  Lincoln  was  again  a  candidate 
for  the  legislature.  His  first  important  step  was 
the  following :  — 


54  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"NEW  SALEM,  June  13,  1863. 

"To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  JOURNAL:  In  your  paper 
of  last  Saturday  I  see  a  communication  over  the  signa 
ture  of  '  Many  voters '  in  which  the  candidates  who  are 
announced  in  the  Journal  are  called  upon  to  *  show 
their  hands.'  Agreed.  Here's  mine  :  - 

"  I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government 
who  assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go 
for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay 
taxes  or  bear  arms  (by  no  means  excluding  females). 

"  If  elected,  I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of  San- 
gamon  my  constituents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as 
those  that  support  me. 

"  While  acting  as  their  representative,  I  shall  be 
governed  by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which  I 
have  the  means  of  knowing  what  their  will  is ;  and 
upon  all  others  I  shall  do  what  my  own  judgment 
teaches  me  will  best  advance  their  interests.  Whether 
elected  or  not,  I  go  for  distributing  the  proceeds  of  the 
sales  of  public  lands  to  the  several  states  to  enable  our 
state,  in  common  with  others,  to  dig  canals  and  con 
struct  railroads  without  borrowing  money  and  paying 
the  interest  on  it. 

"  If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  I  shall 
vote  for  Hugh  L.  White,  for  President. 
"  Very  respectfully, 

"  A.  LINCOLN." 
^* 

One  story  of  this  campaign  shows  Lincoln's 
already  noticeable  political  adroitness.  One 
Forquer,  who  had  put  on  his  house  the  only 
lightning-rod  in  Springfield,  and  the  first  Lin- 


BEGINNINGS    IN   POLITICS    AND    LOVE  55 

coin  and  most  of  his  hearers  had  ever  seen, 
answered  one  of  the  campaign  speeches  of  the 
candidate  from  New  Salem.  Lincoln  in  his 
reply  said  :  — 

"  Mr.  Forquer  commenced  his  speech  by  an 
nouncing  that  the  young  man  would  have  to 
be  taken  down.  It  is  for  you,  fellow-citizens, 
not  for  me,  to  say  whether  I  am  up  or  down. 
The  gentleman  has  seen  fit  to  allude  to  my 
being  a  young  man ;  but  he  forgets  that  I  am 
older  in  years  than  I  am  in  the  tricks  and  trades 
of  politicians.  I  desire  to  live,  and  I  desire 
place  and  distinction ;  but  I  would  rather  die 
now,  than,  like  the  gentleman,  live  to  see  the 
day  that  I  would  change  my  politics  for  an 
office  worth  three  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and 
then  feel  compelled  to  erect  a  lightning-rod  to 
protect  a  guilty  conscience  from  an  offended 
God." 

Lincoln  was  elected,  and  his  record  was 
much  more  prominent  than  it  had  been  dur 
ing  his  first  term.  The  three  things  he  proved 
were  that  he  was  a  very  adroit  politician,  that 
he  shared  a  financial  insanity  which  just  then 
pervaded  the  state,  and  that  he  had  convictions 
on  slavery.  His  political  address  was  shown 
in  his  leading  position  among  the  delegates 
from  his  district,  called  the  "Long  Nine,"  from 
the  height  of  all  the  members,  and  its  recogni- 


56  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

tion  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  a  great  scheme 
of  that  body,  the  removal  of  the  capital,  was 
left  to  his  engineering.  The  removal  for  Van- 
dalia  was  settled,  and  Alton,  Decatur,  Peoria, 
Jacksonville,  and  Illiopolis  sought  the  honor. 
The  Long  Nine,  however,  by  giving  their  sup 
port  to  other  bills  only  in  return  for  votes  for 
Springfield,  conquered.  This  success  led  to  com 
plimentary  dinners  and  meetings,  and  among 
the  toasts  were  these:  — 

"  Abraham  Lincoln :  He  has  fulfilled  the  expecta 
tions  of  his  friends,  and  disappointed  the  hopes  of  his 
enemies." 

"  A.  Lincoln  :  One  of  Nature's  noblemen." 

The  interest  of  the  statesmen  during  this 
session,  however,  was  mainly  taken  up  with  a 
grand  scheme  for  the  manufacture  of  an  Illi 
nois  boom.  Chicago  had  started  on  her  me 
teoric  career,  and  the  legislators  were  drunk 
with  the  idea  of  giving  the  whole  state  a 
similar  experience.  They  planned  a  canal  from 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  Illinois  River  and  rail 
roads  between  numerous  cities,  some  of  which 
owed  their  existence  only  to  maps.  Thirteen 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  rail  were  thus  ar 
ranged  for.  Every  stream  in  the  state  was  to 
be  improved.  Unfortunately  there  were  a  few 


BEGINNINGS    IN    POLITICS   AND    LOVE  57 

neighborhoods  which  had  no  rivers  and  were 
not  included  in  the  railroad  system,  but  the 
open-handed  Solons  met  this  difficulty  by  vot 
ing  $200,000  to  be  divided  among  these  places. 
To  carry  out  the  rest  of  the  plan  they  voted 
the  perfectly  inadequate  sums  of  $8,000,000  for 
railroads  and  $4,000,000  for  the  canal.  Lin 
coln  was  on  the  committee  on  finance.  In 
the  consequences  of  these  dreams  he  shared 
at  a  later  session.  The  frenzy  was  almost 
universal,  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  among 
the  most  enthusiastic. 

As  far  as  Lincoln's  career  was  concerned, 
however,  his  most  important  act  was  one  which 
passed  almost  unnoticed,  a  protest  entered  March 
3,  the  day  before  the  legislature  adjourned. 
The  sentiment  in  favor  of  slavery  in  Illinois, 
which  was  peopled  largely  by  settlers  from 
Southern  states,  had  always  been  considerable. 
After  the  separation  of  Illinois  from  Indiana, 
it  kept  the  Indiana  act  which  authorized  a  sort 
of  slavery  by  indenture.  A  serious  attempt 
to  open  the  state  to  slavery  had  been  made 
by  the  legislature  no  later  than  the  session  of 
1822-23,  and  public  opinion  was  very  hostile 
to  abolitionists,  who  were  looked  upon  as  pre 
tentious  Eastern  cranks.  It  was  not  the  easiest 
course  to  take  any  positive  stand  on  the  ques 
tion,  and  when  Lincoln  made  this  protest  the 


58  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

murder  of  Lovejoy  at  Alton  was  but  one  year 
ahead.  The  resolutions  passed  almost  unani 
mously,  the  protest  being  signed  with  but  two 
names.  The  resolutions  are  :  — 

"  Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  state  of 
Illinois  :  That  we  highly  disapprove  of  the  formation  of 
Abolition  societies  and  of  the  doctrines  promulgated  by 
them; 

"  That  the  right  of  property  in  slaves  is  sacred  to  the 
slave-holding  states  by  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
that  they  cannot  be  deprived  of  that  right  without  their 
consent ; 

"  That  the  General  Government  cannot  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  against  the  consent  of  the 
citizens  of  said  District,  without  a  manifest  breach  of 
good  faith  ; 

"  That  the  Governor  be  requested  to  transmit  to  the 
states  of  Virginia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  New  York,  and 
Connecticut,  a  copy  of  foregoing  report  and  resolutions." 

The  record  of  the  protest  reads :  — 

"  Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery 
having  passed  both  branches  of  the  General  Assembly 
at  its  present  session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest 
against  the  same. 

"  They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
founded  on  both  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that  the 
promulgation  of  abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to  in 
crease  than  abate  its  evils. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 


BEGINNINGS   IN   POLITICS   AND   LOVE  59 

has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere  with 
the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  different  states. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  the  power  under  the  Constitution  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power  ought 
not  to  be  exercised  unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of 
the  District. 

"  The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those 
contained  in  the  above  resolutions,  is  their  reason  for 
entering  this  protest. 

"  DAN  STONE, 
"A.  LINCOLN, 

"  Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon." 

Thus  Lincoln  put  his  opinions  on  record  in 
1837  in  a  way  that  through  all  the  controversy 
of  thirty  years  he  had  no  need  to  alter.  It  was 
the  first  striking  illustration  of  his  power  to  say 
the  right  thing  on  great  moral  issues. 


CHAPTER    IV 

SPRINGFIELD;  MISERY  AND  MARRIAGE 

LINCOLN'S  style  about  this  time  was  usually 
pure,  but,  like  those  of  most  men  who  are  to 
reach  a  high  degree  of  restrained  eloquence,  some 
of  his  early  experiments  are  floricf  as  rflay  be  seen 
in  an  address  before  the  young  'metfs  Lyceum 
of  Springfield,  January  28,  1838,  iit  which  the 
general  tone  corresponded  to  this  extract :  — 

"  Shall  we  expect  some  transatlantic  military  giant  to 
step  the  ocean  and  crush  us  at  a  blow  ?  Never !  All 
the  armies  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  &>mbined,  with 
all  the  treasure  of  the  earth  (our  own  excepted)  in  their 
military  chest,  with  a  Bonaparte  for  a  commander,  could 
not  by  force  take  a  drink  from  the  Ohio  or  make  a  track 
on  the  Blue  Ridge  in  a  trial  of  a  thousand  years. 

"  At  what  point  then  is  the  approach  of  danger  to  be 
expected  ?  I  answer,  If  it  ever  reach  us,  it  must  spring 
up  amongst  us ;  it  cannot  come  from  abroad.  If  de 
struction  be  our  lot,  we  must  ourselves  be  its  author  and 
finisher.  As  a  nation  of  freemen  we  must  live  through 
all  time,  or  die  by  suicide." 

A  manner  of  expression  much  more  natural 
to  him  is  seen  in  these  passages  from  a  letter  to 
Miss  Mary  Owens,  from  Vandalia,  December  1 3, 

1836:  — 

60 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          6 1 

"VANDALIA,  December  13,  1836. 

MARY  :  I  have  been  sick  since  my  arrival,  or  I  should 
have  written  sooner.  It  is  but  little  difference,  however, 
as  I  have  very  little  even  yet  to  write.  And  more,  the 
longer  I  can  avoid  the  mortification  of  looking  in  the 
post-office  for  your  letter  and  not  finding  it,  the  better. 
You  see  I  am  mad  about  that  old  letter  yet.  I  don't 
like  very  well  to  risk  you  again.  I'll  try  you  once  more, 
anyhow. 

********* 
"  You  recollect  that  I  mentioned  at  the  outset  of  this 
letter  that  I  had  been  unwell.  That  is  the  fact,  though 
I  believe  I  am  about  well  now ;  but  that,  with  other 
things  I  cannot  account  for,  have  conspired,  and  have 
gotten  my  spirits  so  low  that  I  feel  that  I  would  rather 
be  any  place  in  the  world  than  here.  I  really  cannot 
endure  the  thought  of  staying  here  ten  weeks.  Write 
back  as  soon  as  you  get  this,  and,  if  possible,  say  some 
thing  that  will  please  me,  for  really  I  have  not  been 
pleased  since  I  left  you." 

In  the  short  time  which  he  spent  at  home  be 
fore  the  special  session,  which  followed  soon  after 
the  end  of  the  regular  session,  Lincoln  continued 
his  study  of  law,  and  in  March  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  Springfield.  As  that  town,  a  great 
city  of  over  a  thousand  inhabitants,  had  been 
chosen  the  capital,  the  ambitious  young  lawyer- 
politician  determined  to  cast  his  fate  there.  One 
fine  day  he  rode  into  town  on  a  borrowed  horse, 
with  a  pair  of  saddle-bags  containing  two  or 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

three  law-books  and  a  few  pieces  of  clothing,  and 
landed  in  the  store  of  a  prosperous  young  mer 
chant  friend,  Joshua  F.  Speed,  who  offered  to 
share  his  quarters  with  him. 

"  What  would  the  furniture  for  a  single  bed 
cost  ?  "  asked  the  newcomer. 

"  About  seventeen  dollars,"  the  merchant  cal 
culated. 

Though  that  would  be  cheap,  Lincoln  ad 
mitted,  he  had  not  the  money  to  pay.  "  But  if 
you  will  credit  me  until  Christmas,  and  my  ex 
periment  here  as  a  lawyer  is  a  success,  I  will  pay 
you  then.  If  I  fail  in  that,  I  will  probably  never 
pay  you  at  all." 

Speed  proposed  to  share  his  double  bed. 

u  Where  is  your  room  ?  "  asked  Lincoln. 

"  Upstairs,"  replied  Speed,  pointing  to  stairs 
which  led  from  the  store. 

Lincoln  picked  up  his  bags,  climbed  the  stairs, 
put  all  his  worldly  goods  upon  the  floor,  and  re 
turned,  a  smiling  resident  of  Springfield,  saying, 
"Well,  Speed,  I've  moved." 

The  kindness  which  he  often  won  was  necessary 
now.  He  was  taken  to  board  by  one  William 
Butler,  with  whom  he  stayed  several  years,  proba 
bly  without  pay.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  he 
formed  a  law  partnership  with  John  T.  Stuart, 
whom  he  had  known  in  the  Black  Hawk  War,  and 
who  had  loaned  him  books  some  years  before. 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          63 

As  Stuart  was  deeply  in  politics,  .Lincoln's  ac 
tive  practice  began  at  once.  He  attended  to  the 
office  business,  drew  up  most  of  the  pleas,  tried 
the  cases,  and  made  all  the  entries  in  the  books. 
Something  of  his  business  mood  may  be  guessed 
from  this  extract  from  a  letter  to  Stuart :  — 

"You  recollect  you  told  me  you  had  drawn  the  Chi 
cago  Masack  money,  and  sent  it  to  the  claimants.  A 
.  .  .  hawk-billed  Yankee  is  here  besetting  me  at  every 
turn  I  take,  saying  that  Robert  Kinzie  never  received 
the  eighty  dollars  to  which  he  was  entitled.  Can  you 
tell  anything  about  the  matter  ?  Again,  old  Mr.  Wright, 
who  lives  up  South  Fork  somewhere,  is  teasing  me  con 
tinually  about  some  deeds  which  he  says  he  left  with 
you,  but  which  I  can  find  nothing  of.  Can  you  tell 
where  they  are  ?  " 

While  at  work,  he  occupied  the  firm  office,  a 
room  in  the  court-house,  containing  a  small  lounge 
or  bed,  a  chair  with  a  buffalo  robe  on  it,  a  hard 
wooden  bench,  and  a  little  bookcase.  His  real 
headquarters,  however,  were  in  Speed's  store,  a 
gathering-point  of  the  town  philosophers,  includ 
ing  men  prominent  in  the  legislature,  with  whom 
Lincoln  had  time  and  opportunity  to  thrash  over 
all  the  problems  of  the  day.  Springfield  was 
rather  more  civilized  than  most  towns  in  Illi 
nois,  and  Lincoln  was  thrown  in  with  men  who 
wore  better  clothes,  had  better  business  habits, 


64  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

and   knew  more   about  the    outside  world    than 
most  he  had  formerly  met. 

His  personal  feelings,  on  one  side,  during  these 
first  days  in  the  new  town,  are  left  in  a  letter  to 

Miss  Owens:  — 

"SPRINGFIELD,  May  7,  1837. 

"  FRIEND  MARY  :  I  have  commenced  two  letters  to 
send  you  before  this,  both  of  which  displeased  me  before 
I  got  half  done,  and  so  I  tore  them  up.  The  first  I 
thought  wasn't  serious  enough,  and  the  second  was  on 
the  other  extreme.  I  shall  send  this,  turn  out  as  it 
may. 

"  This  thing  of  living  in  Springfield  is  rather  a  dull 
business  after  all  —  at  least  it  is  so  to  me.  I  am  quite 
as  lonesome  here  as  (I)  ever  was  anywhere  in  my  life. 
I  have  been  spoken  to  by  but  one  woman  since  I've 
been  here,  and  should  not  have  been  by  her  if  she 
could  have  avoided  it.  I've  never  been  to  church  yet, 
and  probably  shall  not  be,  soon.  I  stay  away  because 
I  am  conscious  I  should  not  know  how  to  behave  my 
self.  I  am  often  thinking  of  what  we  said  of  your  com 
ing  to  live  at  Springfield.  I  am  afraid  you  would  not 
be  satisfied.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  flourishing  about 
in  carriages  here,  which  would  be  your  doom  to  see 
without  sharing  in  it.  You  would  have  to  be  poor 
without  the  means  of  hiding  your  poverty.  Do  you 
believe  you  could  bear  that  patiently  ?  Whatever 
woman  may  cast  her  lot  with  mine,  should  any  one 
ever  do  so,  it  is  my  intention  to  do  all  in  my  power 
to  make  her  happy  and  contented,  and  there  is  nothing 
I  can  imagine  that  would  make  me  more  unhappy  than 
to  fail  in  the  effort.  I  know  I  should  be  much  happier 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          65 

with  you  than  the  way  I  am,  provided  I  saw  no  signs  of 
discontent  in  you. 

"  What  you  have  said  to  me  may  have  been  in  jest  or 
I  may  have  misunderstood  it.  If  so,  then  let  it  be  forgot 
ten  ;  if  otherwise,  I  much  wish  you  would  think  seriously 
before  you  decide.  For  my  part  I  have  already  decided. 
What  I  have  said  I  will  most  positively  abide  by,  pro 
vided  you  wish  it.  My  opinion  is  you  had  better  not  do 
it.  You  have  not  been  accustomed  to  hardship,  and  it 
may  be  more  severe  than  you  imagine.  I  know  you  are 
capable  of  thinking  correctly  on  any  subject:  and  if  you 
deliberate  maturely  upon  this  before  you  decide,  then  I 
am  willing  to  abide  your  decision. 

"  You  must  write  me  a  good  long  letter  after  you  get 
this.  You  have  nothing  else  to  do,  and  though  it  might 
not  seem  interesting  to  you  after  you  have  written  it,  it 
would  be  a  good  deal  of  company  in  this  busy  wilderness. 
Tell  your  sister  I  don't  want  to  hear  any  more  about 
selling  out  and  moving.  That  gives  me  the  hypo 
whenever  I  think  of  it. 

"Yours,  etc., 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Another  letter  is :  — 

"SPRINGFIELD,  Aug.  16,  1837. 

"  FRIEND  MARY  :  You  will  no  doubt  think  it  rather 
strange  that  I  should  write  you  a  letter  on  the  same  day 
on  which  we  parted  ;  and  I  can  only  account  for  it  by 
supposing  that  seeing  you  lately  makes  me  think  of  you 
more  than  usual,  while  at  our  late  meeting  we  had  but 
few  expressions  of  thoughts.  You  must  know  that  I 
cannot  see  you  or  think  of  you  with  entire  indifference ; 
and  yet  it  may  be  that  you  are  mistaken  in  regard  to 


66  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

what  my  real  feelings  toward  you  are.  If  I  knew  you 
were  not,  I  should  not  trouble  you  with  this  letter. 
Perhaps  any  other  man  would  know  enough  without 
further  information,  but  I  consider  it  my  peculiar  right 
to  plead  ignorance  and  your  bounden  duty  to  allow  the 
plea. 

"  I  want  in  all  cases  to  do  right ;  and  most  particularly 
so  in  all  cases  with  women.  I  want  at  this  particular 
time,  more  than  anything  else,  to  do  right  with  you, 
and  if  I  knew  it  would  be  doing  right,  as  I  rather  suspect 
it  would,  to  let  you  alone,  I  would  do  it.  And  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  matter  as  plain  as  possible,  I 
now  say,  that  you  can  now  drop  the  subject,  dismiss 
your  thoughts  (if  you  ever  had  any)  from  me  forever, 
and  leave  this  letter  unanswered,  without  calling  forth 
one  accusing  murmur  from  me.  And  I  will  even  go 
farther,  and  say,  that  if  it  will  add  anything  to  your 
comfort  or  peace  of  mind  to  do  so,  it  is  my  sincere  wish 
that  you  should.  Do  not  understand  by  this  that  I  wish 
to  cut  your  acquaintance.  I  mean  no  such  a  thing. 
What  I  do  wish  is  that  our  further  acquaintance  shall 
depend  upon  yourself.  If  such  further  acquaintance 
would  contribute  nothing  to  your  happiness,  I  am  sure 
it  would  not  to  mine.  If  you  feel  yourself  in  any  degree 
bound  to  me,  I  am  now  willing  to  release  you,  provided 
you  wish  it ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  I  am  willing  and 
even  anxious  to  bind  you  faster  if  I  can  be  convinced 
that  it  will  in  any  considerable  degree  add  to  your  hap 
piness.  This,  indeed,  is  the  whole  question  with  me. 
Nothing  would  make  me  more  miserable,  nothing  more 
happy,  than  to  know  you  were  so. 

"  In  what  I  have  now  said,  I  think  I  cannot  be  mis- 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          67 

understood ;    and   to    make   myself   understood    is  the 
sole  object  of  this  letter. 

"  If  it  suits  you  best  not  to  answer  this  —  farewell  — 
a  long  life  and  a  merry  one  attend  you.  But  if  you  con 
clude  to  write  back,  speak  as  plainly  as  I  do.  There 
can  be  neither  harm  nor  danger  in  saying  to  me  any 
thing  you  think,  just  in  the  manner  you  think  it. 

"  My  respects  to  your  sister. 

"  Your  friend, 

"  LINCOLN." 

As  a  conclusion  to  this  whole  episode,  which  is 
one  of  the  most  baffling  in  its  bearing  on  Lincoln's 
mind  and  character,  we  have  his  own  version  of 
it,  written  April  i,  1838,  to  his  friend,  Mrs.  O.  H. 
Browning ;  in  a  letter  which,  twenty-five  years 
after,  the  President  warned  her  against  giving  to 
a  biographer,  on  the  ground  that  it  contained 

too  much  truth. 

"  SPRINGFIELD,  April,  1838. 

"  DEAR  MADAM  :  Without  apologizing  for  being 
egotistical,  I  shall  make  the  history  of  so  much  of  my 
life  as  has  elapsed  since  I  saw  you  the  subject  of  this 
letter.  And,  by  the  way,  I  now  discover  that,  in  order 
to  give  a  full  and  intelligible  account  of  the  things  I 
have  done  and  suffered  since  I  saw  you,  I  shall  neces 
sarily  have  to  relate  some  that  happened  before. 

"  It  was,  then,  in  the  autumn  of  1836  that  a  married 
lady  of  my  acquaintance  and  who  was  a  great  friend  of 
mine,  being  about  to  pay  a  visit  to  her  father  and  other 
relatives  residing  in  Kentucky,  proposed  to  me  that  on 
her  return  she  would  bring  a  sister  of  hers  with  her  on 


68  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

condition  that  I  would  engage  to  become  her  brother- 
in-law  with  all  convenient  despatch.  I,  of  course, 
accepted  the  proposal,  for  you  know  I  could  not  have 
done  otherwise,  had  I  really  been  averse  to  it ;  but 
privately,  between  you  and  me,  I  was  most  confoundedly 
well  pleased  with  the  project.  I  had  seen  the  said 
sister  some  three  years  before,  thought  her  intelligent 
and  agreeable,  and  saw  no  good  objection  to  plodding 
life  through,  hand  in  hand  with  her.  Time  passed  on, 
the  lady  took  her  journey  and  in  due  time  returned, 
sister  in  company  sure  enough.  This  astonished  me  a 
little ;  for  it  appeared  to  me  that  her  coming  so  readily 
showed  she  was  a  trifle  too  willing ;  but,  on  reflection, 
it  occurred  to  me  that  she  might  have  been  prevailed 
on  by  her  married  sister  to  come,  without  anything 
concerning  me  ever  having  been  mentioned  to  her ;  and 
so  I  concluded  that,  if  no  other  objection  presented 
itself,  I  would  consent  to  waive  this.  All  this  occurred 
to  me  on  hearing  of  her  arrival  in  the  neighborhood; 
for,  be  it  remembered,  I  had  not  yet  seen  her,  except 
about  three  years  previous,  as  above-mentioned.  In 
a  few  days  we  had  an  interview  ;  and,  although  I  had 
seen  her  before,  she  did  not  look  as  my  imagination 
had  pictured  her.  I  knew  she  was  over-size,  but  she 
now  appeared  a  fair  match  for  Falstaff.  I  knew  she 
was  called  an  'old  maid,'  and  I  felt  no  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  at  least  half  of  the  appellation :  but  now,  when 
I  beheld  her,  I  could  not  for  my  life  avoid  thinking  of 
my  mother ;  and  this,  not  from  withered  features,  for 
her  skin  was  too  full  of  fat  to  permit  of  its  contracting 
into  wrinkles,  but  from  her  want  of  teeth,  weather- 
beaten  appearance  in  general,  and  from  a  kind  of  notion 
that  ran  in  my  head  that  nothing  could  have  commenced 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          69 

at  the  size  of  infancy  and  reached  her  present  bulk  in 
less  than  thirty-five  or  forty  years ;  and,  in  short,  I  was 
not  at  all  pleased  with  her.  But  what  could  I  do  ?  I 
had  told  her  sister  I  would  take  her  for  better  or  for 
worse ;  and  I  made  a  point  of  honor  and  conscience  in 
all  things  to  stick  to  my  word,  especially  if  others  had 
been  induced  to  act  on  it,  which  in  this  case  I  had  no 
doubt  they  had ;  for  I  was  now  fairly  convinced  that  no 
other  man  on  earth  would  have  her,  and  hence  the 
conclusion  that  they  were  bent  on  holding  me  to  my 
bargain.  'Well,'  thought  I,  'I  have  said  it,  and,  be 
the  consequences  what  they  may,  it  shall  not  be  my 
fault  if  I  fail  to  do  it.'  At  .once  I  determined  to  con 
sider  her  my  wife ;  and,  this  done,  all  my  powers  of 
discovery  were  put  to  work  in  search  of  perfections  in 
her  which  might  be  fairly  set  off  against  her  defects. 
I  tried  to  imagine  her  handsome,  which,  but  for  her  un 
fortunate  corpulency,  was  actually  true.  Exclusive  of 
this,  no  woman  that  I  have  ever  seen  has  a  finer 
face.  I  also  tried  to  convince  myself  that  the  mind 
was  much  more  to  be  valued  than  the  person ;  and 
in  this  she  was  not  inferior,  as  I  could  discover,  to  any 
with  whom  I  had  been  acquainted. 

"  Shortly  after  this,  without  coming  to  any  positive 
understanding  with  her,  I  set  out  for  Vandalia,  when 
and  where  you  first  saw  me.  During  my  stay  there  I 
had  letters  from  her  which  did  not  change  my  opinion 
of  her  intellect  or  intention,  but  on  the  contrary  con 
firmed  it  in  both. 

"All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed,  'firm  as  the 
surge-repelling  rock,'  in  my  resolution,  I  found  I  was 
continually  repenting  the  rashness  which  had  led  me  to 
make  it.  Through  life,  I  have  been  in  no  bondage, 


70  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

either  real  or  imaginary,  from  the  thraldom  of  which  I 
so  much  desired  to  be  free.  After  my  return  home,  I 
saw  nothing  to  change  my  opinions  of  her  in  any  par 
ticular.  She  was  the  same,  and  so  was  I.  I  now  spent 
my  time  in  planning  how  I  might  get  along  through 
life  after  my  contemplated  change  of  circumstances 
should  have  taken  place,  and  how  I  might  procrastinate 
the  evil  day  for  a  time,  which  I  really  dreaded  as  much, 
perhaps  more,  than  an  Irishman  does  the  halter. 

"  After  all  my  suffering  upon  this  deeply  interesting 
subject,  here  I  am,  wholly,  unexpectedly,  completely, 
out  of  the  '  scrape ' ;  and  now  I  want  to  know  if  you 
can  guess  how  I  got  out  of  it  —  out,  clear,  in  every 
sense  of  the  term ;  no  violation  of  word,  honor,  or  con 
science.  I  don't  believe  you  can  guess,  and  so  I  might 
as  well  tell  you  at  once.  As  the  lawyer  says,  it  was 
done  in  the  manner  following,  to  wit :  After  I  had  de 
layed  the  matter  as  long  as  I  thought  I  could  in  honor 
do  (which,  by  the  way,  had  brought  me  round  into  the 
last  fall),  I  concluded  I  might  as  well  bring  it  to  a  con 
summation  without  further  delay ;  and  so  I  mustered 
my  resolution,  and  made  the  proposal  to  her  direct; 
but,  shocking  to  relate,  she  answered,  No.  At  first  I 
supposed  she  did  it  through  an  affectation  of  modesty, 
which  I  thought  but  ill  became  her  under  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  her  case ;  but  on  my  renewal  of  the 
charge,  I  found  she  repelled  it  with  greater  firmness  than 
before.  I  tried  it  again  and  again,  but  with  the  same 
success,  or  rather  with  the  same  want  of  success. 

"  I  finally  was  forced  to  give  it  up ;  at  which  I  very 
unexpectedly  found  myself  mortified  almost  beyond 
endurance.  I  was  mortified,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  hun 
dred  different  ways.  My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          ;j 

by  the  reflection  that  I  had  been  too  stupid  to  discover 
her  intentions,  and  at  the  same  time  never  doubting 
that  I  understood  them  perfectly;  and  also  that  she, 
whom  I  had  taught  myself  to  believe  nobody  else  would 
have,  had  actually  rejected  me  with  all  my  fancied 
greatness.  And,  to  cap  the  whole,  I  then  for  the  first 
time  began  to  suspect  that  I  was  really  a  little  in  love 
with  her.  But  let  it  all  go.  I'll  try  and  outlive  it. 
Others  have  been  made  fools  of  by  the  girls :  but  this 
can  never  with  truth  be  said  of  me.  I  most  emphati 
cally,  in  this  instance,  made  a  fool  of  myself.  I  have 
now  come  to  the  conclusion  never  again  to  think  of 
marrying,  and  for  this  reason :  I  can  never  be  satisfied 
with  any  one  who  would  be  blockhead  enough  to 
have  me. 

"  When  you  receive  this,  write  me  a  long  yarn  about 
something  to  amuse  me.  Give  my  respects  to  Mr. 
Browning. 

"  Your  sincere  friend, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 


Although  Lincoln's  legislative  career  during 
these  Springfield  years  has  left  no  very  salient 
points,  it  strengthened  him  with  his  party.  The 
special  session  of  1837  had  to  face  a  panic  brought 
on  by  the  wild  deeds  of  the  year  before.  Loans 
were  made  and  work  begun  on  the  roads  and 
canal.  By  the  time  the  election  for  the  regular 
session  of  1838  was  at  hand,  the  improvement 
craze  was  giving  place  to  a  more  cautious  spirit, 
but  the  dreamers  had  not  yet  abandoned  their 


72  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

schemes.  Lincoln  was  elected  and  put  on  the 
finance  committee  and  the  committee  on  counties. 
His  standing  with  the  Whigs  was  shown  in  his 
nomination  for  speaker,  and  although  the  party 
was  in  a  minority  he  came  within  one  vote  of  elec 
tion.  The  legislature  voted  $800,000  more, 
although  the  hearts  of  the  promoters  had  begun 
to  sink.  Lincoln  defended  the  venture  until  the 
inevitable  outcome  forced  him  to  admit  that  he 
was  no  financier.  In  the  session  of  1839,  which 
was  occupied  with  discussing  means  of  paying  the 
appalling  debt,  Lincoln  suggested  a  scheme  pro 
viding  for  the  issue  of  bonds  for  the  payment  of 
interest  due  by  the  state,  and  for  the  appropria 
tion  of  a  special  portion  of  the  state  taxes  to  meet 
the  obligation  thus  incurred,  but  his  suggestions 
were  not  accepted.  So  great  was  the  burden  that 
there  was  a  decided  movement  for  repudiation. 
Payment  of  interest  for  that  year,  however,  was 
gained  by  a  measure  which  forced  Fund  Commis 
sioners  to  decide  what  part  of  the  debt  was  legal. 
Suspension  of  specie  payment  by  the  state  banks 
had  been  made  legal  up  to  "  the  adjournment  of 
the  next  session  of  the  legislature."  This  pro 
vision  led  to  a  hard  fight  over  adjournment,  in 
which  at  one  point  an  unparliamentary  victory 
was  won  by  the  Whigs,  some  of  whom,  seeing  all 
ordinary  methods  exhausted  and  a  vote  about  to 
be  forced  by  the  Democratic  majority,  left  the  hall, 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          73 

Lincoln  and  two  others  jumping  from  the  win 
dows  of  the  church  in  which  the  legislature  sat. 
He  always  disliked  any  reference  to  this  irregular 
road  to  a  victory  by  which  the  Whigs  were  finally 
able  to  give  the  state  banks  a  new  lease  of  life. 
They  lasted  but  two  years,  however,  and  with  their 
fall  ended  the  improvement  schemes,  leaving  be 
hind  nothing  but  a  few  miles  of  embankment,  a 
few  abutments,  and  an  enormous  load  of  debt. 

In  1840  Lincoln  was  again  the  Whig  nominee 
for  speaker,  and  was  again  defeated.  On  his  po 
litical  and  social  methods  during  these  years  a  few 
of  the  remaining  stories  throw  a  rather  vivid  light. 
He  had  naturally  learned  to  make  the  most  of  his 
lowly  origin  when  speaking  from  the  stump.  Once 
when  a  Democratic  orator,  Colonel  Dick  Taylor, 
was  attacking  the  Whigs  for  aristocracy,  Lincoln 
seized  his  coat,  tore  it  open,  and  showed  a  shirt- 
front  so  profusely  adorned  that  the  owner  stood 
hopelessly  convicted  of  pretentions  unbecoming  a 
Western  American.  In  another  field  Lincoln  and 
others  showed  equal  decision.  A  shoemaker,  who 
used  to  beat  his  wife  in  drunken  fits,  was,  after  suf 
ficient  warning,  tied  to  a  pump  and  stripped  of  his 
shirt,  his  spouse  was  supplied  with  a  good  limb, 
and  told  to  "light  in."  Alone  Lincoln  settled  one 
controversy  which  took  place  while  he  was  in  his 
room  above  Speed's  store.  In  that  gathering 
place  E.  D.  Baker,  Lincoln's  Whig  friend,  put 


74  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

such  acerbity  into  his  description  of  Democrats 
in  general  that  a  member  of  the  abused  party  be 
gan  a  personal  chastisement.  Lincoln's  long  legs 
were  seen  dropping  from  the  aperture  above,  fol 
lowed  by  the  rest  of  his  body.  As  soon  as  he 
reached  the  ground  floor  he  seized  a  water-pitcher 
and  offered  to  break  it  over  the  head  of  the  first 
man  who  interfered  with  Baker,  explaining  imme 
diately  that  America  was  a  land  of  free  speech. 
The  softer  side  of  his  nature  comes  out  in  the  tale 
that  after  he  had  mercilessly  ridiculed  an  oppo 
nent,  mimicking  his  personal  peculiarities,  his  con 
science  smote  him  for  going  too  far,  and  he  hunted 
his  victim  up  to  apologize.  It  was  in  a  letter  of 
this  period  that  he  says  to  Stuart,  "  I  am,  as  you 
know,  opposed  to  political  removals  to  make 
places  for  our  friends." 

While  his  political  and  legal  progress  was 
rapid,  his  tendency  to  offer  himself  in  marriage 
on  slight  provocation  was  preparing  the  way  for 
trouble.  Sarah  Rickard,  sister  of  Mrs.  William 
Butler,  says  that  Lincoln  proposed  to  her  in  the 
summer  of  1840,  but  she,  being  but  sixteen,  looked 
upon  him  only  as  an  elder  brother.  In  1839  Mary 
Todd,  aged  twenty-one,  came  to  her  sister's  house 
in  Springfield,  and  speedily  became  popular  with 
that  city's  swains,  among  them  Lincoln,  to  whom 
she  became  engaged.  Douglas  was  among  her 
friends,  and  of  the  many  reports  one  says  that 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND    MARRIAGE  75 

she  rejected  him  because  she  believed  more  firmly 
in  his  rival's  future,  another  and  less  probable  one 
that  at  one  time  only  a  respect  for  her  engage 
ment  kept  her  from  marrying  "  the  Little  Giant," 
as  Douglas  was  soon  to  be  known  to  the 
world. 

One  evening,  according  to  Herndon,  who  was 
then  a  clerk  in  Speed's  store,  Lincoln  read  Speed 
a  letter  to  Miss  Todd,  telling  her  he  did  not  love 
her  enough  to  marry  her  and  asked  Speed  to  de 
liver  it.  Speed,  who  was  the  most  intimate  friend 
Lincoln  ever  had,  threw  it. into  the  fire  and  said 
the  message  ought  to  be  delivered  orally.  Lin 
coln  obeyed,  but  when  Mary  burst  into  tears 
and  said  something  about  the  deceiver  being  de 
ceived,  her  fiance  wept  also,  caught  her  in  his 
arms,  kissed  her,  and  allowed  things  to  drift  on 
toward  marriage,  which  was  fixed  for  January  i, 
1841.  According  to  Herndon's  story,  which  has 
been  doubted,  but  not  essentially  shaken,  Lincoln 
failed  to  appear  when  all  the  preparations  for  the 
marriage  had  been  made,  but  was  found  at  day 
break  in  so  distraught  a  state  that  friends  watched 
over  him  and  kept  from  him  all  knives,  razors,  and 
other  weapons  with  which  he  might  have  ended 
his  troubles.  One  story  is  that  he  had  just  fallen 
in  love  with  Miss  Matilda  Edwards.  At  any  rate, 
three  weeks  later,  on  the  23d  of  January,  he  wrote 
to  his  partner  Stuart :  — 


76  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

"  I  am  now  the  most  miserable  man  living.  If  what 
I  feel  were  equally  distributed  to  the  whole  human 
family,  there  would  not  be  one  cheerful  face  on  earth. 
Whether  I  shall  ever  be  better,  I  cannot  tell ;  I  awfully 
forbode  I  shall  not.  To  remain  as  I  am  is  impossible. 
I  must  die  or  be  better,  as  it  appears  to  me.  ...  I  fear 
I  shall  be  unable  to  attend  any  business  here,  and  a 
change  of  scene  might  help  me.  If  I  could  be  myself, 
I  would  rather  remain  at  home  with  Judge  Logan.  I 
can  write  no  more." 

Herndon  tells  of  a  few  lines  sent  by  Lincoln  at 
this  period  to  the  Sangamon  Journal  under  the 
title  "  Suicide,"  and  later  cut  out  of  the  files. 
According  to  Herndon  also,  Miss  Todd  released 
her  fiance  from  his  engagement  by  letter  a  few 
days  after  the  incidents  of  what  Lincoln  called 
"that  fatal  first  of  January,  1841." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  degree  of  these 
perturbations  the  victim  of  them  was  so  much  in 
active  life  that  he  was  in  his  seat  in  the  legislature 
January  i  and  2,  and  most  of  the  time  to  the 
close  of  the  session  March  i  ;  and  on  April  14, 
1841,  the  firm  of  Stuart  and  Lincoln  was  dis 
solved  and  that  of  Logan  and  Lincoln  estab 
lished,  the  senior  partner  being  Stephen  T. 
Logan,  an  ex-Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 
United  States,  with  the  reputation  of  being  the 
best  nisi prius  lawyer  in  Illinois.  He  was  a  man 
of  studious  and  saving  habits,  devoted  to  the 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          77 

technical  aspect  of  his  profession,  methodical, 
and  in  most  respects  the  opposite  of  Lincoln. 
Logan  wrote  in  the  regular  formal  legal  style, 
whereas  his  partner's  manner  may  be  illustrated 
by  this  letter  to  a  client :  — 

"  As  to  the  real  estate  we  cannot  attend  to  it.  We 
are  not  real  estate  agents,  we  are  lawyers.  We  recom 
mend  that  you  give  the  charge  of  it  to  Mr.  Isaac  S. 
Britton,  a  trustworthy  man,  and  one  whom  the  Lord 
made  on  purpose  for  such  business." 

If  his  business  activity  did  not  cease  during 
these  trying  months,  no  more  did  his  humor, 
which  could  be  at  the  expense  of  his  own  mis 
fortunes.  It  is  in  this  session  that  he  said  in  a 
speech : — 

"The  gentlemen  had  accused  old  women  of  being 
partial  to  the  number  nine ;  but  this,  he  presumed,  was 
without  foundation.  A  few  years  since,  it  would  be 
recollected  by  the  House,  that  the  delegation  from  this 
county  was  dubbed  by  way  of  eminence  'The  Long 
Nine,'  and,  by  way  of  further  distinction,  he  had  been 
called  'The  Longest  of  the  Nine.'  'Now,'  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  '  I  desire  to  say  to  my  friend  from  Monroe 
(Mr.  Bissell),  that  if  any  woman,  old  or  young,  ever 
thought  there  was  any  particular  charm  in  this  distin 
guished  specimen  of  number  nine,  I  have  as  yet  been 
so  unfortunate  as  not  to  have  discovered  it." 

It  was  during  the  same  session  that  he  had  the 


78  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

first  noticeable  issue  with  his  famous  rival,  on 
Douglas's  bill  for  "  reforming "  the  judiciary, 
which  was  merely  a  scheme  to  turn  out  the 
judges  and  appoint  others  for  partisan  pur 
poses.  It  passed  the  legislature,  in  spite  of  the 
protest  of  Lincoln  and  others,  but  seven  years 
after,  Governor  Ford,  a  Democratic  leader,  said 
that  it  was  both  wrong  and  impolitic. 

However,  while  there  are  many  signs  that  no 
absolute  gap  in  his  political  and  legal  activities 
was  made  by  his  inner  troubles,  before  or  after 
the  fatal  first  of  January,  they  certainly  weighed 
heavily  on  his  spirit.  In  the  summer  Speed 
asked  him  for  a  visit  at  Louisville,  Kentucky, 
his  old  home,  •  and  Lincoln  was  much  helped 
by  the  change.  On  his  return  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  Miss  Mary  Speed,  in  which  occurs  this  signifi 
cant  passage :  — 

"  By  the  way,  a  fine  example  was  presented  on  board 
the  boat  for  contemplating  the  effect  of  condition  upon 
human  happiness.  A  gentleman  had  purchased  twelve 
negroes  in  different  parts  of  Kentucky,  and  was  taking 
them  to  a  farm  in  the  South.  They  were  chained  six 
and  six  together.  A  small  iron  clevis  was  around  the 
left  wrist  of  each,  and  this  fastened  to  the  main  chain 
by  a  shorter  one,  at  a  convenient  distance  from  the 
others,  so  that  the  negroes  were  strung  together  pre 
cisely  like  so  many  fish  upon  a  trot-line.  In  this  con 
dition  they  were  being  separated  forever  from  the  scenes 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          79 

of  their  childhood,  their  friends,  their  fathers  and 
mothers,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  many  of  them 
from  their  wives  and  children,  and  going  into  perpetual 
slavery,  where  the  lash  of  the  master  is  proverbially 
more  ruthless  and  unrelenting  than  any  other  where ; 
and  yet  amid  all  these  distressing  circumstances,  as  we 
would  think  them,  they  were  the  most  cheerful  and 
apparently  happy  creatures  on  board.  One  whose 
offence  for  which  he  had  been  sold  was  an  over-fondness 
for  his  wife,  played  the  fiddle  almost  continually,  and 
the  others  danced,  sang,  cracked  jokes,  and  played 
various  games  with  cards  from  day  to  day.  How  true 
it  is  that  '  God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,'  or 
in  other  words,  that  he  renders  the  worst  of  human  con 
ditions  tolerable,  while  he  permits  the  best  to  be  nothing 
better  than  tolerable.  To  return  to  the  narrative. 
When  we  reached  Springfield  I  stayed  but  one  day, 
when  I  started  on  this  tedious  circuit  where  I  now  am. 
Do  you  remember  my  going  to  the  city,  while  I  was  in 
Kentucky,  to  have  a  tooth  extracted,  and  making  a 
failure  of  it  ?  Well,  that  same  old  tooth  got  to  paining 
me  so  much  that  about  a  week  since  I  had  it  torn  out, 
bringing  with  it  a  bit  of  the  jawbone,  the  consequence 
of  which  is  that  my  mouth  is  now  so  sore  that  I  can 
neither  talk  nor  eat." 


He  was  being  talked  about  for  governor,  but 
believed  it  unadvisable  to  run  for  the  office,  as 
shown  in  a  semi-official  announcement  in  the 
Sangamon  Journal,  the  editorial  columns  of 
which  were  always  open  to  him  :  — 


80  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  His  talents  and  services  endear  him  to  the  Whig 
party  ;  but  we  do  not  believe  he  desires  the  nomination. 
He  has  already  made  great  sacrifices  in  maintaining  his 
party  principles,  and  before  his  political  friends  asked 
him  to  make  additional  sacrifices,  the  subject  should  be 
well  considered.  The  office  for  governor,  which  would 
of  necessity  interfere  with  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
would  poorly  compensate  him  for  the  loss  of  four  of 
the  best  years  of  his  life." 

He  therefore  kept  on  with  the  law,  but  his 
mood  did  not  become  exactly  gay.  In  February 
Speed,  who  had  become  engaged  in  the  summer, 
was  to  be  married,  and  Lincoln's  comments  are 
full  of  light  on  his  own  frame  of  mind.  He  warns 
his  friend  just  before  the  wedding  that  a  period 
of  depression  is  likely  to  follow,  due  first  to  pro- 
able  bad  weather  on  the  journey,  second  to  "  the 
absence  of  all  business  and  conversation  of  friends 
which  might  direct  his  mind  and  give  it  occa 
sional  rest  from  the  intensity  of  thought  which 
will  sometimes  wear  the  sweetest  idea  threadbare, 
and  turn  it  to  the  bitterness  of  death."  It  is  such 
thoughts  as  this  that  have  led  to  the  observa 
tion  that  Lincoln  was  by  temperament  a  poet  of 
meditation  and  melancholy. 

On  February  13,  he  wrote:  — 

"  If  you  went  through  the  ceremony  calmly  or  even 
with  sufficient  composure  not  to  excite  alarm  in  any  pres 
ent,  you  are  safe  beyond  question,  and  in  two  or  three 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  OF  LINCOLN  TAKEN  BY  HESLER  AT  CHICAGO  IN  1857. 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          8 1 

months,    to    say    the    most,    will    be    the    happiest    of 
men." 

On  the  25th,  he  wrote :  — 

"  I  shall  be  very  lonesome  without  you.  How  miser 
ably  things  seem  to  be  arranged  in  this  world !  If  we 
have  no  friends  we  have  no  pleasure,  and  if  we  have 
them  we  are  sure  to  lose  them,  and  be  doubly  pained  by 
the  loss." 

March  27,  he  says : — 

"  It  cannot  be  told  how  it  thrills  me  with  joy  to  hear 
you  say  you  are  '  far  happier  than  you  ever  expected  to 
be '.  That  much,  I  know,  is  enough.  I  know  you  too 
well  to  suppose  your  expectations  were  not,  at  least  some 
times,  extravagant,  and  if  the  reality  exceeds  them  all, 
I  say  '  Enough,  dear  Lord.'  I  am  not  going  beyond 
the  truth  when  I  tell  you  that  the  short  space  it  took 
me  to  read  your  last  letter  gave  me  more  pleasure  than 
the  total  sum  of  all  I  have  enjoyed  since  that  fatal  first 
of  January,  1841.  Since  then  it  seems  to  me  I  should 
have  been  entirely  happy  but  for  the  never-absent  idea 
that  there  is  one  still  unhappy  whom  I  have  contributed 
to  make  so.  That  kills  my  soul.  I  cannot  but  reproach 
myself  for  even  wishing  to  be  happy  while  she  is  other 
wise.  She  accompanied  a  large  party  on  the  railroad 
cars  to  Jacksonville  last  Monday,  and  on  her  return 
spoke,  so  that  I  heard  of  it,  of  having  enjoyed  the  trip 
exceedingly.  God  be  praised  for  that." 

Early  in  this  year,  1842,  he  entered  into  what 
was  known  as  the  Washington  movement,  to 


82  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

suppress  the  evils  of  intemperance.  He  had 
always  been  singularly  abstemious  for  a  frontier 
politician,  but  he  gained  nothing  with  the  church 
people  by  championing  the  good  cause,  but  rather 
hostility,  for  his  frankness  led  in  one  speech  to 
his  statement  that  those  who  had  never  fallen 
victims  to  the  vice  were  spared  more  by  lack  of 
appetite  than  by  any  superiority,  and  that  taken 
as  a  class  drunkards  would  compare  favorably  in 
head  and  heart  with  any  other. 

His  frame  of  mind  as  summer  came  on  is 
recorded  by  himself  in  a  letter  of  July  4,  to 
Speed :  — 

"  I  must  gain  confidence  in  my  own  ability  to  keep 
my  resolves  when  they  are  made.  In  that  ability  I  once 
prided  myself  as  the  only  chief  gem  of  my  character ; 
that  gem  I  lost,  how  and  where  you  know  too  well.  I 
have  not  regained  it;  and  until  I  do  I  cannot  trust 
myself  in  any  matter  of  much  importance.  I  believe 
now  that  had  you  understood  my  case  at  the  time  as 
well  as  I  understood  yours  afterward,  by  the  aid  you 
would  have  given  me  I  should  have  sailed  through  clear ; 
but  that  does  not  now  afford  me  sufficient  confidence  to  be 
gin  that  or  the  like  of  that  again.  ...  I  always  was  super 
stitious  ;  I  believe  God  made  me  one  of  the  instruments 
of  bringing  Fanny  and  you  together,  which  union  I  have 
no  doubt  he  had  foreordained.  Whatever  He  designs 
He  will  do  for  me  yet.  '  Stand  still  and  see  the  salva 
tion  of  the  Lord/  is  my  text  just  now.  If,  as  you  say, 
you  have  told  Fanny  all,  I  have  no  objection  to  her 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND  MARRIAGE          83 

seeing  this  letter,  but  for  its  reference  to  our  friend 
here  ;  let  her  seeing  it  depend  upon  whether  she  has 
ever  known  anything  of  my  affairs  ;  and  if  she  has  not, 
do  not  let  her.  I  do  not  think  I  can  come  to  Kentucky 
this  season.  I  am  so  poor  and  make  so  little  headway 
in  the  world  that  I  drop  back  in  a  month  of  idleness  as 
much  as  I  gain  in  a  year's  sowing." 

On  October  5,  he  wrote  to  Speed:  - 

"  I  want  to  ask  you  a  close  question  —  Are  you  now, 
in  feeling  as  well  as  in  judgment,  glad  you  are  married 
as  you  are  ?  From  anybody  but  me  this  would  be  an 
impudent  question,  not  to  be  tolerated ;  but  I  know  you 
will  pardon  it  in  me.  Please  answer  it  quickly,  as  I  am 
impatient  to  know." 

He  was  contemplating  marriage  again.  Just 
how  long  he  had  been  wavering  we  do  not  know. 
During  the  summer  friends  had  brought  the 
former  fiances  together,  and  they  immediately  saw 
much  of  each  other.  One  result  was  a  duel,  to 
which  Lincoln,  in  later  years,  disliked  any  refer 
ence.  A  Democratic  politician,  named  James 
Shields,  was  ridiculed  by  Lincoln  in  a  letter  to  a 
Springfield  paper,  signed  "  Aunt  Rebecca."  Miss 
Todd  and  a  woman  friend  then  tried  their  hands, 
under  the  same  signature,  in  a  similar  letter, 
followed  a  few  days  later  by  verses  on  the  subject 
signed  "  Cathleen."  Shields  was  furious,  and 
Lincoln,  to  protect  the  women,  gave  himself  out 
as  the  author.  The  consequence  was  a  challenge. 


84  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Lincoln  named  the  bottom  land  in  Missouri,  op 
posite  Alton,  as  the  scene,  and  set  the  following 
conditions :  — 

"First.  Weapons  :  Cavalry  broadswords  of  the 
largest  size,  precisely  equal  in  all  respects,  and  such  as 
now  used  by  the  cavalry  company  at  Jacksonville. 

"  Second.  Position :  A  plank  ten  feet  long,  and  from 
nine  to  twelve  inches  broad,  to  be  firmly  fixed  on  edge 
on  the  ground,  as  the  line  between  us,  which  neither  is 
to  pass  his  foot  over  on  forfeit  of  his  life.  Next,  a  line 
drawn  on  the  ground  on  either  side  of  said  plank  and 
parallel  with  it,  each  at  the  distance  of  the  whole  length 
of  the  sword  and  three  feet  additional  from  the  plank ; 
and  the  passing  of  his  own  such  line  by  either  party 
during  the  fight  shall  be  deemed  a  surrender  of  the 
contest." 

Lincoln  and  his  second,  E.  H.  Merryman,  drove 
to  Alton  in  a  buggy,  and  the  party,  on  a  horse 
ferry,  crossed  the  river  to  a  sand-bar.  When 
they  reached  the  rendezvous  they  were  joined  by 
unexpected  friends,  who  pacified  them  and  led 
them  home  in  quiet.  On  one  of  the  very  rare 
occasions  when  he  was  willing  to  mention  this 

o 

affair  at  all,  Lincoln  said  to  a  friend,  who  asked 
why  he  chose  broadswords  :  "  To  tell  you  the 
truth,  Linder,  I  didn't  want  to  kill  Shields,  and 
felt  sure  I  could  disarm  him,  having  had  about  a 
month  to  learn  the  broadsword  exercise  ;  and,  fur 
thermore,  I  didn't  want  the  damned  fellow  to  kill 


SPRINGFIELD;    MISERY  AND   MARRIAGE          85 

me,  which  I  rather  think  he  would  have  done  if 
we  had  selected  pistols." 

On  the  morning  of  November  4,  1842,  Lincoln 
went  to  the  room  of  James  H.  Matheney  and 
asked  him  to  be  his  best  man  at  a  marriage  not 

o 

yet  announced,  but  to  be  celebrated  that  night. 
Miss  Todd  at  the  same  time  asked  of  a  friend  a 
similar  favor.  The  license  was  obtained,  a  minis 
ter  summoned,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  few 
friends  the  deed  was  done.  While  the  groom 
was  dressing  at  Butler's  house,  according  to 
Herndon,  a  small  Butler  boy  asked  him  where 
he  was  going.  "  To  hell,  I  suppose,"  was  the 
reply.  Another  story  goes  that  among  the  guests 
was  Thomas  C.  Brown,  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  a  man  who  represented  a  some 
what  earlier  stage  of  Illinois  civilization.  When 
the  groom,  putting  on  the  ring,  repeated,  "  with 
this  ring  I  thee  endow  with  all  my  goods  and 
chattels,  lands  and  tenements,"  Judge  Brown, 
standing  close  by  the  bridal  couple,  witnessing 
such  a  proceeding  for  the  first  time,  exclaimed, 
"  God  Almighty,  Lincoln,  the  statute  fixes  all 
that !  "  Thus,  in  a  life  containing  more  mystery 
than  that  of  any  equally  celebrated  modern,  a 
mysterious  wedding  was  accomplished. 


CHAPTER  V 

CONGRESS 

A  FEW  years  after  her  marriage  Mrs.  Lincoln 
said  to  Ward  H.  Lamon,  who  had  remarked 
that  her  husband  was  a  great  favorite  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  state :  "  Yes,  he  is  a  great 
favorite  everywhere.  He  is  to  be  President  of 
the  United  States  some  day.  If  I  had  not 
thought  so,  I  would  never  have  married  him, 
for  you  can  see  he  is  not  pretty.  But  look  at 
him.  Doesn't  he  look  as  if  he  would  make  a 
magnificent  President  ?  " 

Lincoln  was  in  politics  almost  constantly  for 
several  years.  The  spring  after  his  marriage, 
March  i,  1843,  however,  he  offered  to  a  Whig 
meeting  at  Springfield  a  series  of  resolutions  of 
which  the  following  are  especially  significant ; 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  ideas  on  tariff  and 
finance  were  never  very  deeply  pondered  :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  a  tariff  of  duties  on  imported  goods, 
producing  sufficient  revenue  for  the  payment  of  the 
necessary  expenditures  of  the  National  Government, 
and  so  adjusted  as  to  protect  American  industry,  is 
indispensably  necessary  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Ameri 
can  people. 

86 


CONGRESS  87 

"Resolved,  That  we  are  opposed  to  direct  taxation 
for  the  support  of  the  National  Government. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  national  bank,  properly  restricted, 
is  highly  necessary  and  proper  to  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  a  sound  currency,  and  for  the  cheap  and 
safe  collection,  keeping,  and  disbursing  of  public 
revenue." 

At  this  time  he  was  endeavoring  to  get  to 
Congress.  On  the  24th  of  the  same  month  he 
wrote  to  Speed :  — 

"  DEAR  SPEED  :  We  had  a  meeting  of  the  Whigs  of 
the  county  here  on  last  Monday  to  appoint  delegates  to 
a  district  convention ;  and  Baker  beat  me,  and  got  the 
delegation  instructed  to  go  for  him.  The  meeting,  in 
spite  of  my  attempt  to  decline  it,  appointed  me  one  of 
the  delegates ;  so  that  in  getting  Baker  the  nomination 
I  shall  be  fixed  a  good  deal  like  a  fellow  who  is  made  a 
groomsman  to  a  man  that  has  cut  him  out  and  is  marry 
ing  his  own  dear  "gal."  About  the  prospects  of  your 
having  a  namesake  at  our  town,  can't  say  exactly  yet. 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Logan  also  wanted  to  go  to  Congress  that 
year,  and  political  rivalry  led  to  the  severance 
of  a  partnership  which  had  been  a  valuable 
training  for  the  junior  member.  With  W. 
H.  Herndon  was  formed  the  firm  of  Lincoln 
and  Herndon,  which  was  dissolved  only  by  the 
President's  death. 


88  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Lincoln  believed,  as  is  shown  by  his  corre 
spondence,  that  his  expected  defeat  by  Edward 
H.  Baker,  who  finally  missed  the  prize  that  fell 
to  Colonel  J.  J.  Hardin,  was  due  largely  to  his 
being  suspected  of  deism.  Some  years  earlier, 
full  of  Volney's  "Ruins"  and  Paine's  "Age  of 
Reason,"  he  had  prepared  an  extended  argu 
ment  against  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  which 
one  of  his  cautious  friends  deposited  in  the 
stove.  What  his  belief  was  can  never  be  in 
dubitably  known,  partly  because  in  varying 
moods  it  probably  wavered,  partly  because 
prudence  compelled  him  to  make  reasonable 
concessions  to  circumstance.  He  once  asked 
Herndon  to  erase  the  word  "  God  "  from  the  draft 
of  a  speech,  because  it  suggested  the  existence 
of  a  more  personal  power  than  Lincoln  be 
lieved  in.  He  did  not  believe  in  eternal  pun 
ishment  and  never  joined  a  church.  During 
his  presidency  a  convention  of  preachers  asked 
him  to  recommend  to  Congress  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  recognizing  the  existence 
of  God,  and  the  first  draft  of  his  message  called 
attention  to  the  subject,  but  he  struck  out  the 
clause  in  correcting  the  proof.  His  creed,  as 
far  as  it  can  be  gathered,  seems  to  have  been 
very  much  like  Hamlet's,  and  he  was  fond  of 
quoting,  "  there's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our 
ends,  rough-hew  them  how  we  will."  From 


CONGRESS  89 

the  days  when  he  imbibed  a  belief  in  luck  and 
omens  from  his  environment  to  the  time  when  he 
took  his  son  Robert  to  Terre  Haute  to  be  cured 
by  a  mad-stone  of  the  bite  of  a  dog,  down 
to  the  war  when  he  forbade  a  movement  on 
Sunday  because  Bull  Run  had  been  fought  on 
the  Sabbath,  he  was  still  foreseeing  good  and  evil 
fortune,  private  and  public.  Superstition,  faith, 
and  doubt  were  inextricably  mixed  up  in  him. 

Infidelity  was  again  urged  the  next  time  he  was 
a  candidate.  In  1844  he  refused  to  contest  the 
nomination  with  Baker,  but  in  1846,  by  the  con 
vention  which  met  on  May  i,  he  was  nominated. 
That  an  agreement  had  been  made  between  Har- 
din,  Baker,  Lincoln,  and  Logan,  that  each  should 
have  a  term  in  Congress,  is  almost  proved  by 
Lincoln's  correspondence,  and  such  was  the  out 
come,  Logan  being  nominated  and  defeated  in 
1838.  After  being  a  presidential  elector  for  Clay 
and  stumping  the  state  in  1844,  Lincoln  received 
the  nomination  for  Congress  in  1846,  and  ran 
against  a  famous  Methodist  preacher  named  Peter 
Cartwright.  Although  the  Democrats  attacked 
the  Whig  candidate  on  religious  grounds,  Lincoln 
was  elected,  the  only  Whig  in  the  Illinois  delega 
tion.  The  district  gave  him  1511  as  against  914 
for  Clay  in  the  preceding  presidential  campaign, 
and  Sangamon  County  gave  him  the  largest  major 
ity  received  by  any  candidate  from  1836  to  1850 


90  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

inclusive.  His  correspondence  is  sufficient  evi 
dence  of  the  care  and  shrewdness  with  which  he 
worked  to  bring  about  this  victory.  One  story 
illustrates  the  faculty  for  which  he  was  famous,  of 
foreseeing  political  results.  During  the  campaign 
a  Democratic  friend  promised  him  his  vote  if  it 
seemed  absolutely  necessary.  A  short  time  be 
fore  the  election  Lincoln  answered,  "  I  have  got 
the  preacher  and  don't  want  your  vote."  To  Speed, 
soon  after  the  victory,  he  wrote,  "  Being  elected  to 
Congress,  though  I  am  very  grateful  to  our  friends 
for  having  done  it,  has  not  pleased  me  as  much  as 
I  expected." 

Before  following  Lincoln  to  Washington,  where 
he  took  his  seat  in  December,  1847,  we  maY  pause 
to  notice  his  spiritual  estate  as  exhibited  by  two 
modest  effusions  of  his  muse.  When  he  was 
stumping  for  Clay  he  crossed  into  Indiana  and  re 
visited  his  old  home.  "That  part  of  the  country 
is,  within  itself,  as  unpoetical  as  any  spot  on  earth;" 
he  wrote,  "  but  still,  seeing  it  and  its  objects  and 
inhabitants  aroused  feelings  in  me  which  were  cer 
tainly  poetry;  though  whether  my  expression  of 
these  feelings  is  poetry  is  quite  another  question." 
Here  is  a  sample :  — 

"  Near  twenty  years  have  passed  away 

Since  here  I  bid  farewell 
To  woods  and  fields,  and  scenes  of  play, 
And  playmates  loved  so  well. 


CONGRESS 

"  Where  many  were,  but  few  remain 

Of  old  familiar  things  ; 
But  seeing  them,  to  mind  again 
The  lost  and  absent  brings. 


"  The  friends  I  left  that  parting  day, 
How  changed,  as  time  has  sped  ! 
Young  childhood  grown,  strong  manhood  gray, 
And  half  of  all  are  dead. 

"  I  hear  the  loved  survivors  tell 

How  naught  from  death  could  save, 
Till  every  sound  appears  a  knell, 
And  every  spot  a  grave. 

"  I  range  the  fields  with  pensive  tread, 

And  pace  the  hollow  rooms, 
And  feel  (companion  of  the  dead) 
I'm  living  in  the  tombs." 

In  Gentryville  he  found  his  old  schoolfellow, 
Matthew  Gentry,  in  a  state  of  hopeless  insanity, 
and  was  inspired  to  put  his  feelings  into  verse,  of 
which  this  a  fragment:  — 

"  And  when  at  length  the  drear  and  long 

Time  soothed  thy  fiercer  woes, 
How  plaintively  thy  mournful  song 
Upon  the  still  night  rose  ! 

"  I've  heard  it  oft  as  if  I  dreamed, 

Far  distant,  sweet  and  lone, 
The  funeral  dirge  it  ever  seemed 
Of  reason  dead  and  gone. 


92  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  Now  fare  thee  well !     More  thou  the  cause 

Than  subject  now  of  woe. 
All  mental  pangs  by  time's  kind  laws 
Hast  lost  the  power  to  know. 

"  O  death  !  thou  awe-inspiring  prince 

That  keep'st  the  world  in  fear, 
Why  dost  thou  tear  more  blest  ones  hence, 
And  leave  him  lingering  here?" 

In  sending  this  to  a  friend,  Lincoln  lightens  it 
a  trifle  with  the  remark,  "  If  I  should  ever  send 
another,  the  subject  will  be  a  '  Bear  Hunt.' " 

Mrs.  Lincoln  accompanied  her  husband  to 
Washington,  with  their  two  children.  A  few 
days  after  the  opening,  Lincoln  did  the  most  con 
spicuous  thing  done  by  him  during  the  session. 
President  Polk,  who  had  tricked  the  nation  into 
the  war  with  Mexico  by  various  misrepresenta 
tions,  had  said  in  his  message  of  May  n?  1846, 
that  Mexico  had  invaded  our  territory  and  shed 
the  blood  of  our  citizens  on  our  soil,  and  Lincoln, 
representing  Whig  hostility  to  the  war,  intro 
duced  resolutions  calling  upon  the  President  to 
name  the  exact  "  spot "  where  these  outrages 
occurred.  Of  course  Polk  paid  no  attention  to 
the  request,  but  the  "  spot  resolutions,"  express 
ing  a  general  disbelief  in  the  President's  honesty, 
attracted  considerable  attention. 

About  three  weeks  after  the  introduction  of  these 
resolutions,  Lincoln  wrote  to  Herndon,  January  8, 


CONGRESS  93 

1848:  "As  to  speech-making,  by  way  of  getting 
the  hang  of  the  House,  I  made  a  little  speech  two 
or  three  days  ago  on  a  post-office  question  of 
no  general  interest.  I  find  speaking  here  and 
elsewhere  about  the  same  thing.  I  was  about  as 
badly  scared,  and  no  worse,  as  I  am  when  I 
speak  in  court.  I  expect  to  make  one  within  a 
a  week  or  two  in  which  I  hope  to  succeed  well 
enough  to  wish  you  to  see  it."  Four  days  later 
he  called  up  his  "  spot  resolutions,"  and  made  a 
long  speech  upon  them.  His  attitude  on  the 
Mexican  War  for  some  time  cost  him  much,  but 
he  never  wavered.  To  Herndon,  a  very  practical 
man,  who  remonstrated,  he  wrote,  "  Would  you 
have  voted  what  you  felt  and  knew  to  be  a  lie  ? " 
He,  like  most  of  the  WThigs,  voted  for  the  sup 
plies,  but  honestly  proclaimed  his  belief  that  the 
war  itself  was  unjust.  Shrewd  and  calculating 
as  he  was,  he  was  a  man  of  emotional,  deep  con 
viction.  How  he  could  feel  is  indicated  in  a 
brief  note  to  his  partner,  written  hastily  on  im 
pulse,  February  2,  1848,  to  mention  a  speech  by 
Mr.  Stephens  of  Georgia.  "  My  old  withered  dry 
eyes  are  full  of  tears  yet."  He  was  in  his  fortieth 
year,  but  his  sorrowful  nature  looked  upon  itself 
as  already  old.  Soon  after  he  wrote  to  Herndon  : 
"  I  suppose  I  am  now  one  of  the  old  men ;  and  I 
declare,  on  my  veracity,  which  I  think  is  good 
with  you,  that  nothing  could  afford  me  more 


94  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

satisfaction  than  to  learn  that  you  and  others  of 
my  young  friends  at  home  are  doing  battle  in  the 
contest,  and  endearing  themselves  to  the  people, 
and  taking  a  stand  far  above  any  I  have  been 
able  to  take  in  their  admiration." 

In  the  spring  he  worked  for  General  Taylor's 
nomination  by  the  Whigs  and  later  for  his  elec 
tion,  making  in  the  House  an  oration  which  has 
become  famous  for  its  closing  attack  on  the 
Democratic  candidate,  General  Cass,  a  rough  bit 
of  sarcasm,  full  of  stump  vigor,  but  in  no  way  dis 
tinguished.  Here  is  one  passage:  — 

"  Mr.  Polk  himself  was  '  Young  Hickory,'  '  Little 
Hickory,'  or  something  so;  and  even  now  your  cam 
paign  paper  here  is  proclaiming  that  Cass  and  Butler 
are  of  the  'Hickory  stripe.'  No,  sir,  you  dare  not  give 
it  up.  Like  a  horde  of  hungry  ticks,  you  have  stuck  to 
the  tail  of  the  Hermitage  lion  to  the  end  of  his  life  ;  and 
you  are  still  sticking  to  it,  and  drawing  a  loathsome  sus 
tenance  from  it,  after  he  is  dead.  A  fellow  once  adver 
tised  that  he  had  made  a  discovery  by  which  he  could 
make  a  new  man  out  of  an  old  one  and  have  enough  of 
the  stuff  left  to  make  a  little  yellow  dog.  Just  such  a 
discovery  has  General  Jackson's  popularity  been  to  you. 
You  not  only  twice  made  Presidents  of  him  out  of  it, 
but  you  have  enough  of  the  stuff  left  to  make  Presidents 
of  several  comparatively  small  men  since ;  and  it  is  your 
chief  reliance  now  to  make  still  another." 

The  most  important  question  on  which  he  put 
himself  on  record  was  slavery.  The  principle  of 


CONGRESS  95 

the  Wilmot  Proviso  —  that  slavery  was  to  be 
prohibited  in  thereafter  acquired  territory  —  was 
then  being  fought  over  in  various  forms  in  Con 
gress,  and  Lincoln  has  more  than  once  said  that 
he  voted  in  favor  of  it  "  about  forty-two  times," 
although  he  took  little  part  in  the  discussion.  As 
Daniel  Webster  and  the  branch  of  the  Whigs  of 
which  he  was  the  head  were  going  to  pieces  over 
this  question,  Lincoln's  clearness  is  worthy  of 
emphasis.  On  this  fundamental  issue  his  con 
victions  seem  to  have  been  firm  from  the  be 
ginning.  What  he  thought  at  once  just  and 
practicable  under  the  actual  conditions  is  shown 
by  a  bill  which  he  himself  introduced  to  prohibit 
the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It 
forbade  bringing  slaves  into  the  District,  except 
as  household  servants  by  government  officials 
who  were  citizens  of  slave  states,  or  selling  them 
to  be  taken  out  of  the  District.  It  provided  for 
the  gradual  freeing  of  children  thereafter  born  in 
slavery,  and  for  compensation ;  it  recognized  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  it  was  to  be  submitted 
to  popular  vote  in  the  District.  Altogether  it 
was  much  like  his  attitude  in  1862.  In  spite  of 
its  moderation  it  received  some  abolitionist  sup 
port,  but  was  soon  pushed  aside. 

A  number  of  small  matters  connected  with  the 
term  in  Washington  are  of  decided  interest.  To 
the  compiler  of  the  "  Dictionary  of  Congress," 


96  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Lincoln  gave  the  following  notes,  which  show 
what  he  deemed  the  main  points  in  his  career  up 
to  this  time :  "  Born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin 
County,  Kentucky,  education  defective,  profes 
sion,  a  lawyer.  Have  been  a  captain  of  volunteers 
in  the  Black  Hawk  War.  Postmaster  at  a  very 
small  office.  Four  times  a  member  of  the  Illinois 
legislature,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Lower  House 
of  Congress." 

A  fragment  written  by  him  in  the  summer  of 
1848  states  what  he  thought  ought  to  be  said  by 
General  Taylor.  It  doubtless  expresses  partly 
policy  and  partly  principle,  but  as  it  touches 
several  of  the  most  important  questions  of  the 
day  it  is  a  valuable  witness  to  the  state  of  Lin 
coln's  political  beliefs :  — 

"  The  question  of  a  national  bank  is  at  rest.  Were 
I  President,  I  should  not  urge  its  reagitation  upon  Con 
gress  ;  but  should  Congress  see  fit  to  pass  an  act  to 
establish  such  an  institution,  I  should  not  arrest  it  by 
the  veto,  unless  I  should  consider  it  subject  to  some 
constitutional  objection  from  which  I  believe  the  two 
former  banks  to  have  been  free. 

"  It  appears  to  me  that  the  national  debt  created  by 
the  war  renders  a  modification  of  the  existing  tariff  in 
dispensable  ;  and  when  it  shall  be  modified  I  should  be 
pleased  to  see  it  adjusted  with  a  due  reference  to  the 
protection  of  our  home  industry.  The  particulars,  it 
appears  to  me,  must  and  should  be  left  to  the  untram 
melled  discretion  of  Congress. 


CONGRESS  97 

"  As  to  the  Mexican  War,  I  still  think  the  defensive 
line  policy  the  best  to  terminate  it.  In  a  final  treaty  of 
peace,  we  shall  probably  be  under  a  sort  of  necessity 
of  taking  some  territory;  but  it  is  my  desire  that  we 
shall  not  acquire  any  extending  so  far  south  as  to  en 
large  and  aggravate  the  distracting  question  of  slavery. 
Should  I  come  into  the  presidency  before  these  ques 
tions  shall  be  settled,  I  should  act  in  relation  to  them 
in  accordance  with  the  views  here  expressed. 

"  Finally,  were  I  President,  I  should  desire  the  legis 
lation  of  the  country  to  rest  with  Congress,  uninfluenced 
by  the  executive  in  its  origin  or  progress,  and  undis 
turbed  by  the  veto  unless  in  very  special  and  clear 
cases." 

During  his  term  in  Congress  he  was  not  only 
sending  part  of  his  salary  to  Herndon  to  pay  the 
old  debts  of  Lincoln  and  Berry,  but  he  had  occa 
sional  other  calls  for  money.  December  12, 
1848,  he  wrote  to  his  father  a  letter  which, 
though  kind,  indicates  what  the  son  thought  of 
his  parent's  business  ability 

"WASHINGTON,  Dec.  24,  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  FATHER  :  Your  letter  of  the  /th  was  re 
ceived  night  before  last.  I  very  cheerfully  send  you 
the  twenty  dollars,  which  sum  you  say  is  necessary  to 
save  your  land  from  sale.  It  is  singular  that  you  should 
have  forgotten  a  judgment  against  you ;  and  it  is  more 
singular  that  the  plaintiff  should  have  let  you  forget  it 
so  long ;  particularly  as  I  suppose  you  always  had  prop 
erty  enough  to  satisfy  a  judgment  of  that  amount.  Be- 


98  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

fore  you  pay  it,  it  would  be  well  to  be  sure  you  have 
not  paid,  or  at  least,  that  you  cannot  prove  you  have 
paid  it. 

"  Give  my  love  to  mother  and  all  the  connections. 
"  Affectionately  your  son, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

On  his  way  to  Springfield  from  Washington, 
Lincoln,  stopping  at  Niagara,  was  so  much  im 
pressed  that  he  has  left  some  notes  for  a  lecture, 
which  illustrate  the  truth  that  flights  into  the 
poetic  aspects  of  science  and  nature  were  not  his 
strongest  gifts.  The  vessel  on  which  his  journey 
home  was  continued  got  stranded  on  a  sand-bar, 
and  the  captain  floated  it  by  forcing  loose  planks, 
empty  barrels,  and  boxes  under  the  sides  of  the 
boat.  Inspired  by  this  principle  Lincoln  bor 
rowed  tools  from  a  mechanic  in  Springfield,  made 
a  model,  and  secured  a  patent  which  was  never 
used.  His  application  read:  — 

"  What  I  claim  as  my  invention,  and  desire  to  secure 
by  letters  patent,  is  the  combination  of  expansible  buoy 
ant  chambers  placed  at  the  sides  of  a  vessel  with  the 
main  shaft  or  shafts  by  means  of  the  sliding  spars, 
which  pass  down  through  the  buoyant  chambers  and 
are  made  fast  to  their  bottoms  and  the  series  of  ropes 
and  pulleys  or  their  equivalents  in  such  a  manner  that 
by  turning  the  main  shaft  or  shafts  in  one  direction  the 
buoyant  chambers  will  be  forced  downward  into  the 
water,  and  at  the  same  time  expanded  and  filled  with 


CONGRESS 


99 


air  for  buoying  up  the  vessel  by  the  displacement  of 
water,  and  by  turning  the  shafts  in  an  opposite  direc 
tion  the  buoyant  chambers  will  be  contracted  into  a 
small  space  and  secured  against  injury. 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Far  more  significant,  however,  than  anything 
else  connected  with  his  experience  in  Washington 
except  slavery,  is  his  attitude  toward  public  office. 
Although  the  facts  on  this  subject  will  not  please 
purists,  they  play  so  large  a  part  in  any  sincere 
estimate  of  Lincoln,  —  and,  to  a  sound  mind,  so 
honorable  a  part,  —  that  the  main  points,  as  un 
mistakably  set  forth  in  that  mine  of  information, 
his  correspondence,  should  be  seriously  dwelt 
upon.  Larger  and  harder  problems  about  the 
proper  relation  of  practical  and  immediate  to 
ideal  and  distant  considerations  arose  in  the 
war,  but  the  point  of  view  which  always  gov 
erned  him  was  as  settled  twenty  years  earlier. 
He  writes  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  as 
the  Whigs  of  Illinois  hold  him  and  Colonel  Baker, 
their  only  members  of  Congress,  responsible  to 
some  extent  for  appointments  of  Illinois  citizens, 
they  ask  to  be  heard  whenever  such  an  appoint 
ment  is  contemplated.  To  the  Secretary  of  State 
he  sends  the  papers  of  one  applicant.  "  Mr.  Bond 
I  know  to  be  personally  every  way  worthy  of  the 
office  .  .  and  I  solicit  for  his  claims  a  full  and 


100  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

fair  consideration."  He  then  adds  that  in  his 
individual  judgment  the  appointment  of  another 
man  would  be  much  better.  There  are  a  number 
of  letters,  almost  exactly  the  same  in  language, 
stating  that  certain  incumbents,  who  have  filled 
their  offices  excellently,  are  decided  partisans. 
In  most  cases  he  carefully  states  that  he  will 
express  no  opinion  on  the  validity  of  partisanship 
as  a  ground  of  removal,  but  that  if  it  is  accepted 
as  such  the  rule  should  be  general,  and  the  par 
ticular  individual  designated  no  exception.  One 
of  these  notes  has  the  personal  interest  of  re 
lating  to  the  friend  from  whom  Lincoln  had  so 
long  received  free  board.  "  I  recommend  that 
William  Butler  be  appointed  pension  agent  when 
the  place  shall  be  vacant.  Mr.  Hurst,  the  pres 
ent  incumbent,  I  believe  has  performed  the  duties 
very  well.  He  is  a  decided  partisan,  and,  I  be 
lieve,  expects  to  be  removed.  Whether  he  shall, 
I  submit  to  the  department."  Of  another  he 
says :  "  I  have  already  said  he  has  done  the 
duties  of  the  office  well,  and  I  now  add  he  is 
a  gentleman  in  the  true  sense.  Still,  he  submits 
to  be  the  instrument  of  his  party  to  injure  us. 
His  high  character  enables  him  to  do  it  more 
effectually."  The  two  following  letters  speak  for 
themselves :  — 


CONGRESS 
UNIVERSITY 

"  CONFIDENTIAL. 

"  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS,  May  25,  1849. 
"  HON.  E.  EMBREE, 

"  Dear  Sir:  I  am  about  to  ask  a  favor  of  you,  — 
one  which  I  hope  will  not  cost  you  much.  I  under 
stand  the  General  Land  Office  is  about  to  be  given  to 
Illinois,  and  that  Mr.  Ewing  desires  Justin  Butterfield,  of 
Chicago,  to  be  the  man.  I  give  you  my  word,  the  ap 
pointment  of  Mr.  Butterfield  will  be  an  egregious  politi 
cal  blunder.  It  will  give  offence  to  the  whole  Whig 
party  here,  and  be  worse  than  a  dead  loss  to  the  ad 
ministration  of  so  much  of  its  patronage.  Now,  if  you 
can  conscientiously  do  so,  I  wish  you  to  write  General 
Taylor  at  once,  saying  that  either  I,  or  the  man  I 
recommend,  should  in  your  opinion  be  appointed  to  that 
office,  if  any  one  from  Illinois  shall  be.  I  restrict  my 
request  to  Illinois  because  you  may  have  a  man  from 
your  own  state,  and  I  do  not  ask  to  interfere  with  that. 

"  Your  friend  as  ever, 

"  A.  LINCOLN." 

"  SPRINGFIELD,  June  5,  1849. 

"Dear  William:  Your  two  letters  were  received 
last  night.  I  have  a  great  many  letters  to  write,  and  so 
cannot  write  very  long  ones.  There  must  be  some  mis 
take  about  Walter  Davis  saying  I  promised  him  the 
post-office.  I  did  not  so  promise  him.  I  did  tell  him 
that  if  the  distribution  of  the  offices  should  fall  into  my 
hands,  he  should  have  something;  and  if  I  shall  be 
convinced  he  has  said  any  more  than  this,  I  shall  be 
disappointed.  I  said  this  much  to  him  because,  as  I 


102  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

understand,  he  is  of  good  character,  is  one  of  the  young 
men,  is  of  the  mechanics,  and  always  faithful  and  never 
troublesome ;  a  Whig,  and  is  poor,  with  the  support  of 
a  widow  mother  thrown  almost  exclusively  on  him  by 
the  death  of  his  brother.  If  these  are  wrong  reasons, 
then  I  have  been  wrong;  but  I  have  certainly  not  been 
selfish  in  it,  because  in  my  greatest  need  of  friends  he 
was  against  me,  and  for  Baker. 

"  Yours  as  ever, 

"A.  LINCOLN. 
"  P.S.  —  Let  the  above  be  confidential." 

Lincoln  went  into  the  fight  for  the  General 
Land  OfHce  actively,  received  support  in  many 
directions,  but  failed.  The  administration  of 
fered  to  make  him  either  governor  or  secretary 
of  Oregon,  and  he  made  a  special  trip  to  Wash 
ington,  just  after  the  expiration  of  his  term,  to 
discuss  the  subject.  He  was  rather  inclined  to 
accept,  feeling  that  his  attitude  toward  the  Mexi 
can  War  had  probably  ruined  him  politically,  but 
the  opposition  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  led  him  to  decline 
and  settle  down  to  active  practice  in  the  law, 


CHAPTER  VI 

LINCOLN    AS    A    LAWYER 

WITH  little  hope  of  a  political  future,  gloom  at 
home,  and  a  constant,  grim  determination  to 
make  the  best  of  what  fate  allowed  him,  Lincoln 
settled  quietly  into  the  routine  of  Springfield  and 
circuit  practice.  A  Chicago  lawyer,  named  Grant 
Goodrich,  with  a  good  business,  offered  him  a 
partnership,  which  he  declined  on  the  ground 
that,  as  he  already  tended  toward  consumption, 
hard  study  and  confinement  would  kill  him.  He 
therefore  undertook  his  part  of  the  work  of  Lin 
coln  and  Herndon,  spending  half  of  the  year  at 
home,  and  half  around  the  state,  following  Judge 
Davis,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
the  travelling  life  was  more  agreeable.  On  Satur 
day  nights  it  was  customary  for  the  judges  and 
lawyers  who  lived  within  reach  to  go  home, 
but  of  this  opportunity  Lincoln  seldom  or  never 
availed  himself,  preferring  to  spend  his  Sundays 
chatting  at  the  tavern. 

In  the  Springfield  office  he  spent  a  good  deal  of 
his  time  on  Euclid,  poetry,  and  history,  and  more 
on  the  newspapers,  conversation,  and  stories,  some 
what  to  the  annoyance  of  his  more  methodical 

103 


104  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

partner,  who  failed  to  enjoy  Lincoln's  habit  of 
reading  the  papers  aloud  when  they  two  were 
alone.  Law  was  not  neglected  by  him,  however, 
especially  when  a  case  was  at  hand,  and  he  often 
studied  late  into  the  night,  making  such  progress, 
through  his  fundamental  clearness  of  understand 
ing,  that  his  reputation  increased  very  rapidly, 
even  for  legal  arguments  to  the  court,  but  partic 
ularly  for  jury  trials,  where  his  colloquial,  honest, 
and  racy  manner  had  its  full  opportunity.  His 
speech  was  never  technical  or  pompous,  but  al 
ways  familiar.  He  "  reckoned  it  would  be  fair 
to  let  in  that,"  and  if  the  court  overruled  him  he 
said,  "  Well,  I  reckon  I  must  be  wrong."  He  was 
leisurely,  and  when  Herndon  suggested  that  he 
was  too  slow  in  speech  and  manner  he  turned  his 
long  jackknife  in  a  circle,  and  then  a  small  pen 
knife  with  the  same  speed  at  the  circumference, 
to  show  that  the  one  which  took  longest  in 
completing  the  circle  had  travelled  farthest,  and 
he  in  turn  advised  the  younger  partner  never  to 
aim  over  the  heads  of  the  people  he  was  talking 
to.  It  is  significant  that  during  his  presidency 
he  told  Mr.  Colfax  that  in  all  his  time  at  the  bar 
he  never  found  an  opponent's  case  stronger  than 
he  expected,  and  usually  found  it  weaker. 

With  an  earnest,  honest,  and  simple  mind,  and 
little  aptitude  for  technicalities,  his  strength  nat 
urally  lay  in  cases  where  the  fundamental  right 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  105 

was  clear.  He  frequently  advised  the  dropping 
of  cases  which  could  only  be  won  by  technical 
adroitness.  Once  when  Herndon,  who  reveals 
his  own  elastic  standards  with  unhesitating  frank 
ness,  had  drawn  a  fictitious  plea,  and  explained 
to  his  partner  that,  although  it  was  not  sound,  he 
had  overheard  remarks  of  the  opposing  counsel 
which  showed  that  they  would  not  be  able  to  dis 
prove  it,  Lincoln  advised  its  withdrawal.  After 
he  had  won  in  the  prosecution  of  a  murder  trial, 
he  was  for  a  long  time  haunted  by  a  bare  doubt 
of  the  prisoner's  sanity.  He  induced  his  young 
friend  Lamon,  when  they  had  been  retained  on 
the  same  case,  to  return  part  of  a  joint  fee  agreed 
upon  in  advance,  because  he  thought  afterward 
that  it  was  excessive.  In  a  suit  against  a  railroad 
company,  before  judgment  was  pronounced,  he 
arose  to  point  out  that  his  opponents  had  failed 
to  prove  all  that  was  justly  due  them  in  offset,  and 
the  amount  which  he  explained  might  have  been 
found  was  allowed  in  the  judgment.  However, 
he  was  not  beyond  provocation.  When  the  Illi 
nois  Central  contested  a  bill  of  $2000,  Lincoln 
sued  for  $5000  and  won. 

These  characteristics  became  widely  known. 
As  he  for  years  went  over  the  whole  circuit,  he 
was  always  among  friends,  never  facing  a  jury 
without  seeing  familiar  countenances  before  him. 
To  the  popularity  brought  him  by  his  honesty 


106  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

and  simplicity,  his  breezy  spirits  added  much. 
He  would  enter  the  court-room  with  some  such 
exclamation  as,  "  Well,  here  I  am,  ain't  you  glad 
to  see  me  ?  "  The  well-known  smallness  of  his  fees, 
which  kept  him  always  poor,  his  constant  habit 
of  never  suing,  and  his  willingness  to  give  help 
in  any  just  cause,  also  helped  him  win  the  general 
heart.  He  was  invariably  kind  to  young  lawyers, 
and  he  never  objected  to  any  reasonable  request 
by  opposing  counsel.  The  easy,  untechnical 
character  of  the  law  in  Illinois  in  those  days  was 
just  what  his  character  needed.  When  he  read, 
he  took  no  notes,  because  he  understood  the  prin 
ciples,  and  they  were  all  he  cared  to  remember. 
So  in  court  he  easily  remembered  the  testimony 
as  far  as  it  bore  on  the  real  issue,  for  his  attention 
never  strayed  from  that.  He  did  not  know  a 
great  number  of  precedents,  but  he  could  reason 
logically  and  persuasively  from  sound  general 
principles.  His  standing  on  technical  details  is 
probably  correctly  indicated  by  a  story  told  by  a 
lawyer  who  asked  him,  in  1855,  if  they  could  in 
terpose  the  same  defence  to  an  action  upon  the 
judgment  of  another  state  that  they  could  to  the 
original  claim.  Lincoln's  answer  was  "  Yes." 
At  another  time  the  same  man  asked  him  if,  in  an 
attachment  suit,  a  service  of  the  attachment  writ 
on  the  defendant  had  the  force  of  a  summons. 
"  Damfino,"  said  Lincoln. 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  107 

Nevertheless,  "any  one,"  as  Leonard  Swett 
says,  "who  took  Lincoln  for  a  simple-minded 
man  would  very  soon  wake  up  on  his  back,  in 
a  ditch."  He  nearly  always  stuck  to  simple, 
central  truths,  but  he  could,  when  necessary, 
use  a  kind  of  adroitness  of  his  own,  although 
it  was  not  very  technical.  One  of  his  com 
panions  tells  this  story :  — 

"  During  my  first  attendance  at  court  in 
Menard  County,  some  thirty  young  men  had 
been  indicted  for  playing  cards,  and  Lincoln 
and  I  were  employed  in  their  defence.  The 
prosecuting  attorney,  in  framing  the  indict 
ments,  alternately  charged  the  defendants  with 
playing  a  certain  game  of  cards  called  '  seven- 
up,'  and  in  the  next  bill  charged  them  with 
playing  cards  at  a  certain  game  called  '  old 
sledge.'  Four  defendants  were  indicted  in  each 
bill.  The  prosecutor,  being  entirely  unac 
quainted  with  games  at  cards,  did  not  know 
the  fact  that  both  '  seven-up  '  and  '  old  sledge ' 
were  one  and  the  same.  Upon  the  trial  on  the 
bills  describing  the  game  as  'seven-up'  our 
witnesses  would  swear  that  the  game  played 
was  '  old  sledge,'  and  vice  versa  on  the  bills 
alleging  the  latter.  The  result  was  an  acquittal 
in  every  case  under  the  instructions  of  the 
court.  The  prosecutor  never  found  out  the 
dodge  until  the  trials  were  over,  and  immense 


108  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

fun    and    rejoicing    were    indulged    in    at    the 
result." 

Judge  Davis,  an  unusually  good  witness,  on 
account  of  his  ability  and  his  intimacy  with 
Lincoln,  says  that  he  was  "  hurtful  in  denun 
ciation  and  merciless  in  castigation."  One  of 
his  most  eloquent  onslaughts  was  in  the  Wright 
case,  where  he  attacked  a  pension  agent  for 
cheating  a  poor  widow.  Lincoln,  who  was  him 
self  surety  for  her  costs,  gave  such  a  picture 
of  her  husband's  hardships,  the  sufferings  of 
the  soldiers  at  Valley  Forge,  and  the  heartless 
extortion  of  the  agent,  that  the  jury  was  in 
tears,  and  the  verdict  was  entirely  in  favor  of 
the  widow.  Lincoln's  notes  for  this  argument 
could  hardly  be  surpassed  for  individuality. 
They  were  :  "  No  contract.  —  Not  professional 
services.  —  Unreasonable  charge.  —  Money  re 
tained  by  Deft  not  given  by  Pl'ff.  —  Revolu 
tionary  War.  —  Describe  Valley  Forge  privations. 
-Ice.  —  Soldier's  bleeding  feet.  —  Pl'ff's  hus 
band.  —  Soldier  leaving  home  for  army.  - 
Skin  Deft.  —  Close."  That  he  did  skin  the 
defendant  there  is  no  doubt. 

Besides  this  ability  in  castigation  Judge  Davis 
also  credits  him  with  a  large  power  in  com 
parison,  which  he  seldom  failed  to  use  in  legal 
arguments,  and  this  power  was  often  brought 
out  in  his  favorite  narrative  form.  "  The  ability," 


LINCOLN  AS   A  LAWYER 


109 


Judge  Davis  says,  "however,  which  some  emi 
nent  lawyers  possess,  of  explaining  away  the 
bad  points  of  a  cause  by  ingenious  sophistry, 
was  denied  him."  Among  the  number  of  stories 
which  illustrate  this  characteristic  honesty,  one 
of  the  most  definite  tells  of  the  trial  of  a  man 
for  homicide  committed  at  Sandorus,  Illinois. 
When  the  facts  were  brought  before  the  petit 
jury  it  was  clearly  developed  that  the  indict 
ment  ought  to  have  been  for  murder  instead 
of  for  manslaughter.  The  two  lawyers  asso 
ciated  with  Lincoln  in.  the  defence  wished  to 
try  for  an  acquittal.  Leonard  Swett  made 
an  effective  speech  one  evening,  in  which  he 
brought  much  pathos  out  of  several  small  chil 
dren  and  the  wife  about  to  be  confined.  Lin 
coln,  following  on  the  same  side  the  next  day, 
damaged  by  the  honesty  of  his  mental  pro 
cesses  the  effect  made  by  Swett.  He  disagreed 
with  the  pathos  argument  and  said  that  was 
not  to  be  weighed  by  the  jury.  His  client,  found 
guilty,  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  three 
years,  and  Lincoln,  who  believed  that  he  had 
committed  murder,  induced  the  Government  to 
pardon  him  a  short  time  after. 

Judge  Davis  frequently  had  Lincoln  hold 
court  for  him,  sometimes  for  an  hour  or  two, 
sometimes  a  day  or  more,  occasionally  even  for 
a  long  time,  and  it  is  said  that  two  cases  were 


1 10  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

afterward  reversed  for  this  reason.  Stories  with 
more  point  than  probability  relate  that  the  tem 
porary  judge  used  to  leave  the  bench  to  enter 
tain  the  crowd  with  stories,  and  that  he  once 
granted  a  new  trial  on  the  ground  of  the  in- 
competency  of  the  court.  Another  tale,  prob 
ably  true,  is  thus  told  by  one  of  his  colleagues : 
"  Several  of  us  lawyers  in  the  eastern  end  of 
the  circuit  annoyed  Lincoln  once  while  he  was 
holding  court  for  Davis  by  attempting  to  defend 
against  a  note  to  which  there  were  many  makers. 
We  had  no  legal,  but  a  good  moral  defence,  but 
what  we  wanted  most  of  all  was  to  stave  it  off  till 
the  next  term  of  court,  by  one  expedient  or  an 
other.  We  bothered  'the  court'  about  it  till  late 
on  Saturday,  the  day  of  adjournment.  He  ad 
journed  for  supper  with  nothing  left  but  this  case 
to  dispose  of.  After  supper  he  heard  our  twaddle 
for  nearly  an  hour,  and  then  made  this  odd  entry: 
*  L.  D.  Chaddon  vs.  J.  D.  Beasley  et  al  April  Term, 
1856.  Champaign  County  Court.  Plea  in  abate 
ment  by  B.  Z.  Green,  a  defendant  not  served, 
filed  Saturday  at  eleven  o'clock  A.M.,  April  24, 
1856,  stricken  from  the  files  by  order  of  court. 
Demurrer  to  declaration,  if  there  ever  was  one, 
overruled.  Defendants  who  are  served  now,  at 
eight  o'clock,  P.M.  of  the  last  day  of  the  term,  ask 
to  plead  to  the  merits,  which  is  denied  by  the  court 
on  the  ground  that  the  offer  comes  too  late,  and 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  III 

therefore,  as  by  nil  duet,  judgment  is  rendered 
for  Pl'ff.  Clerk  assess  damages.  A.  Lincoln, 
Judge  pro  tern' ' 

One  of  the  lawyers,  on  recovering  from  his 
astonishment,  inquired,  "  Well,  Lincoln,  how  can 
we  get  this  case  up  again  ?  "  Lincoln  eyed  him 
a  moment,  and  then  answered,  "  You  have  all 
been  so  'mighty  smart  about  this  case,  you  can 
find  out  how  to  take  it  up  again  yourselves." 

Another  direction  in  which  Lincoln  managed 
to  extract  amusement  from  life,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  he  was  unable  to  proceed  in  his  chosen 
direction,  is  indicated  by  Lamon's  story  of  a  time 
when  he  also  was  practising  in  Illinois.  Called 
suddenly  into  court  from  an  improvised  wrestling 
match  outside,  Lamon  arose  to  address  the  judge, 
unconscious  of  a  large  rent  in  his  trousers.  The 
fun-loving  country  attorneys  quickly  circulated  a 
paper  begging  subscriptions  to  correct  the  worthy 
youth's  apparel.  Each  member  to  whom  the 
paper  came  added  some  absurd  contribution,  but 
when  it  reached  Lincoln,  he  wrote  on  it,  "  I  can 
contribute  nothing  to  the  end  in  view'.' 

In  Springfield,  however,  the  natural  social 
gayety  of  his  existence,  which  under  any  circum 
stances  had  a  background  of  melancholy,  was 
lessened  by  unhappy  home  surroundings.  Lin 
coln's  usual  hour  for  reaching  the  office  was  nine, 
but  sometimes  Herndon,  who  arrived  earlier, 


112  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

found  his  partner  already  there,  which  meant 
something  unpleasant  in  the  family,  and  the  only 
morning  salutation  then  vouchsafed  by  the  senior 
was  a  grunt.  Herndon  also  declares  that  Lincoln 
feed  a  maid  to  endure  the  peculiarities  of  his 
wife,  and  that,  although  his  home  was  but  a  few 
squares  away,  he  lunched  at  the  office  on  crackers 
and  cheese  and  frequently  remained  long  after 
dark. 

An  easy  carelessness  reigned  in  the  office.  On 
one  large  envelope  Lincoln  had  written,  "  When 
you  can't  find  it  anywhere  else  look  into  this." 
Another  receptacle  was  still  more  devoted  to 
general  utility,  his  big  silk  plug  hat,  which  he 
used  now  for  law  as  he  had  formerly  for  mail. 
He  once  apologized  to  a  lawyer  for  not  having 
answered  a  letter,  on  the  ground  that  he  put  it 
in  his  old  hat  and  bought  a  new  one.  The  papers 
and  other  material  in  the  office  were  strewn  any 
where,  and  a  law  student  who  endeavored  to 
clean  up  the  place  found  that  some  seeds  brought 
back  by  Lincoln  from  Washington  had  sprouted 
in  the  accumulated  dirt.  In  this  easy  atmosphere 
the  head  of  the  firm  divided  his  time  between 
discussing,  telling  stories,  often  repeating  a  new 
one  several  times  to  newcomers  in  as  many 
hours  with  the  same  zest,  and  spells  of  hard 
work.  One  observer  says,  "  As  for  Lincoln,  he 
had  three  different  moods,  if  I  may  so  express 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  113 

myself;  first,  a  business  mood,  when  he  gave 
strict  and  close  attention  to  business,  and  ban 
ished  all  idea  of  hilarity ;  i.e.  in  counselling  or  in 
trying  cases,  there  was  no  trace  of  the  joker;  sec 
ond,  his  melancholy  moods,  when  his  whole  nature 
was  immersed  in  Cimmerian  darkness ;  third,  his 
dont-care-whether-scJwol-keeps-or-not  mood  ;  when 
no  irresponsible  '  small  boy '  could  be  so  appar 
ently  careless,  or  reckless  of  consequences." 

At  home  he  was  an  indulgent  parent,  seem 
ingly  unwilling  to  cross  his  children  in  anything. 
He  is  described  as  fond  of  playing  with  kittens, 
taking  walks  with  the  children,  working  about 
the  house,  or  lying  on  the  floor  reading,  but  car 
ing  nothing  for  food  or  drink,  or  for  some  aspects 
of  natural  beauty,  such  as  flowers  and  trees.  He 
would  often  slip  away  by  himself  to  a  theatre  or 
concert,  especially  if  the  entertainment  was  light, 
and  he  enjoyed  particularly  minstrels  and  a  little 
magic-lantern  show  intended  for  children.  ,  He 
would  stop  in  the  street  to  analyze  any  machine 
he  saw,  from  an  omnibus  to  a  clock,  turning  onto 
mechanical  and  intellectual  problems  the  same 
spirit  of  analytic  interest.  "  While  we  were 
travelling  in  ante-railway  days,"  says  Henry  C. 
Whitney,  "  on  the  circuit,  and  would  stop  at  a 
farmhouse  for  dinner,  Lincoln  would  improve  the 
leisure  in  hunting  up  some  farming  implement, 
machine,  or  tool,  and  he  would  carefully  examine 


114  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

it  all  over,  first  generally  and  then  critically ;  he 
would  '  sight '  it  to  determine  if  it  was  straight  or 
warped;  if  he  could  make  a  practical  test  of  it, 
he  would  do  that;  he  would  turn  it  over  or 
around  and  stoop  down,  or  lie  down,  if  necessary, 
to  look  under  it;  he  would  examine  it  closely, 
then  stand  off  and  examine  it  at  a  little  distance ; 
he  would  shake  it,  lift  it,  roll  it  about,  up-end  it, 
overset  it,  and  thus  ascertain  every  quality  and 
utility  which  inhered  in  it,  so  far  as  acute  and 
patient  investigation  could  do  it.  He  was  equally 
inquisitive  in  regard  to  matters  which  obtruded 
on  his  attention  in  the  moral  world ;  he  would 
bore  to  the  centre  of  any  moral  proposition,  and 
carefully  analyze  and  dissect  every  layer  and 
every  atom  of  which  it  was  composed,  nor  would 
he  give  over  the  search  till  completely  satisfied 
that  there  was  nothing  more  to  know,  or  be 
learned  about  it." 

"  His  home,"  says  Whitney,  "  was  very  ordinary 
and  isolated ;  there  was  little  external  indication 
of  life  or  movement  there :  Lincoln  was  occa 
sionally  seen  to  be  walking  to  and  fro,  on  the 
sidewalk,  with  a  child  in  his  arms,  or  hauling  one 
in  a  little  child's  go-cart;  or,  in  the  morning,  at 
irregular  hours,  might  be  seen  to  come  furtively 
out  of  the  house,  or  from  his  little  barn,  and  walk 
in  solitary  mood  up-town,  where  he  would  drop 
into  the  circuit  clerk's  office  —  or  at  a  store  where 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER 

citizens  congregated  —  or  anywhere  that  he  could 
find  somebody  to  listen  to  his  stories ;  he  would 
sometimes  turn  up  at  his  own  office,  and,  not  in 
frequently,  at  the  law  library  of  the  State  House; 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  day,  he  would  go  home 
and  drive  up  and  milk  his  cow,  feed  his  horse, 
clean  out  his  very  humble  stable,  chop  some 
wood;  and  his  day's  work  was  done,  unless,  as 
was  quite  common,  he  again  went  up-town,  to 
pass  the  evening  in  some  grocery  store,  or  other 
citizens'  rendezvous,  engaged  in  his  usual  avoca 
tion  of  telling  stories;  or,  perhaps,  wandering 
alone,  aimlessly,  in  the  unfrequented  streets, 
clothed  in  melancholy,  and  his  mind  turned 
completely  within  itself,  in  deep  reflection. 

"  His  stable  stands  yet,  or  did  recently,  just  as 
he  left  it  thirty  years  ago,  barring  the  ravages 
of  time ;  it  is  primitive  and  uninteresting,  save 
by  its  reminiscences ;  it  is  of  boards  nailed  up 
endwise  —  no  battens  —  only  about  six  and  one- 
half  feet  to  the  eaves  —  the  roof  with  the  least 
pitch  possible  to  carry  off  the  water  at  all ;  only 
one  apartment,  where  his  horse  —  old  Tom- 
his  cow  —  his  old  open  buggy  —  his  hay  and 
feed  were  all  together.  He  was  his  own  wood- 
chopper,  hostler,  stable-boy  and  cow-boy,  clear 
down  to,  and  even  beyond,  the  time  that  he  was 
President-elect  of  the  United  States. 

"  Of  course  I  do  not  mean  that  he  did  no  busi- 


Il6  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

ness  in  his  profession  at  Springfield ;  but  in  Lin 
coln's  day  there,  courts  did  not  sit  often,  and 
preparation  for  trials  was  not  very  elaborate ;  he 
had  much  leisure,  and  that  was  passed  much  as 
I  have  defined.  The  tendencies  of  his  mind  alter 
nated  between  deep,  earnest,  solitary  reflection,  at 
which  times  he  wanted  no  contact  or  communica 
tion  with  others,  and  light,  frivolous,  frolicsome 
moods,  when  he  wanted  an  audience,  but  was 
utterly  regardless  of  its  size,  quality,  or  character." 
In  winter  an  old  gray  shawl  was  wrapped  about 
his  neck.  His  hat  had  no  nap,  his  boots  were 
unblacked,  his  clothes  unbrushed,  he  carried  a 
dilapidated  carpet-bag  for  legal  papers,  a  faded 
green  umbrella  with  the  knob  gone,  a  string  tied 
about  the  middle,  and  the  name  "  A.  Lincoln " 
cut  out  of  white  muslin  in  large  letters  and 
sewed  in  the  inside.  He  always  wore  short 
trousers  and  usually  a  short  circular  blue  cloak, 
which  he  got  in  Washington  in  1849,  and  kept 
for  ten  years,  which,  like  his  vest,  hung  very 
loosely  on  his  frame.  He  slept  in  a  warm  yellow 
flannel  shirt,  which  came  half-way  between  his 
knees  and  his  ankles.  The  changes  which  grad 
ually  took  place  in  his  dress,  which  reached  its 
greatest  elegance  in  his  presidency,  were  slight 
and  marked  no  decrease  in  his  own  innocence 
about  appearances,  the  improvements  being  usu 
ally  suggested  to  him  by  his  wife  and  friends. 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  li; 

Lying  on  the  floor  in  his  shirt-sleeves  was  a 
favorite  attitude  for  reading.  As  he  had  no  li 
brary,  and  the  parlor,  with  its  sofa,  six  haircloth 
chairs,  and  marble  table,  strewn  with  gift  books 
in  blue  and  gilt,  expressed  not  his  spirit  but  his 
wife's,  he  often  chose  the  hall  for  his  recumbent 
study;  and  if  women  happened  to  call  Lincoln 
would  go  to  the  door  attired  as  he  was  and 
promise  that  he  "would  trot  the  women  folks 
out."  It  is  alleged  that  for  such  practices,  and 
possibly  also  for  obtaining  butter  at  the  table 
with  his  own  knife,  Mrs.  Lincoln  found  opportu 
nities  to  punish  him. 

Of  his  attitude  toward  hardship  Leonard  Swett 
says :  "  I  rode  the  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit  with 
him  for  eleven  years,  and  in  the  allotment  between 
him  and  the  large  Judge  Davis,  in  the  scanty  pro 
vision  of  those  times,  as  a  rule  I  slept  with  him. 
Beds  were  always  too  short,  coffee  in  the  morning 
burned  or  otherwise  bad,  food  often  indifferent, 
roads  simply  trails,  streams  without  bridges  and 
often  swollen,  and  had  to  be  swam,  sloughs  often 
muddy  and  almost  impassable,  and  we  had  to  help 
the  horses,  when  the  wagon  mired  down,  with 
fence-rails  for  pries,  and  yet  I  never  heard  Lincoln 
complain  of  anything." 

Mr.  Whitney  says :  "  At  Danville,  the  county 
seat  of  Vermilion  County,  the  judge  and  Lin 
coln  and  I  used  to  occupy  the  ladies'  parlor  of 


Il8  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  old  McCormick  House,  changed  to  a  bed 
room  during  court,  the  former  occupying  a  three- 
quarter  bed,  and  Lincoln  and  I  occupying  the 
other  one,  jointly.  This  parlor  was  an  'annex' 
to  the  main  building,  and  one  door  opened  out 
directly  on  the  sidewalk,  and  as  the  Fall  term  was 
held  in  cold  weather,  we  had  a  hearth  wood  fire 
to  heat  our  room.  One  morning,  I  was  awakened 
early  —  before  daylight  —  by  my  companion  sit 
ting  up  in  bed,  his  figure  dimly  visible  by  the 
ghostly  firelight,  and  talking  the  wildest  and  most 
incoherent  nonsense  all  to  himself.  A  stranger 
to  Lincoln  would  have  supposed  he  had  suddenly 
gone  insane.  Of  course  I  knew  Lincoln  and  his 
idiosyncrasies,  and  felt  no  alarm,  so  I  listened  and 
laughed.  After  he  had  gone  on  in  this  way  for, 
say,  five  minutes,  while  I  was  awake,  and  I  know 
not  how  long  before  I  was  awake,  he  sprang  out 
of  bed,  hurriedly  washed,  and  jumped  into  his 
clothes,  put  some  wood  on  the  fire,  and  then  sat 
in  front  of  it,  moodily,  dejectedly,  in  a  most  sombre 
and  gloomy  spell,  till  the  breakfast  bell  rang,  when 
he  started,  as  if  from  sleep,  and  went  with  us  to 
breakfast." 

Of  the  influence  of  this  circuit  life  on  Lincoln's 
natural  bent  toward  story-telling  he  himself  said 
to  Chauncey  M.  Depew  that,  "  Riding  the  circuit 
for  many  years  and  stopping  at  country  taverns 
where  were  gathered  the  lawyers,  jurymen,  wit- 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  119 

nesses,  and  clients,  they  would  sit  up  all  night  nar 
rating  to  each  other  their  life  adventures ;  and 
that  the  things  which  happened  to  an  original 
people,  in  a  new  country,  surrounded  by  novel 
conditions,  and  told  with  the  descriptive  power 
and  exaggeration  which  characterized  such  men, 
supplied  him  with  an  exhaustless  fund  of  anecdote 
which  could  be  made  applicable  for  enforcing  or 
refuting  an  argument  better  than  all  the  invented 
stories  of  the  world."  To  the  same  Mr.  Depew, 
himself  so  well  known  as  a  story-teller,  Lincoln 
said :  — 

"  They  say  I  tell  a  great  many  stories ;  I  reckon 
I  do,  but  I  have  found  in  the  course  of  a  long  ex 
perience  that  common  people" — and  repeating  it 
—  "common  people,  take  them  as  they  run,  are 
more  easily  influenced  and  informed  through  the 
medium  of  a  broad  illustration  than  in  any  other 
way,  and  as  to  what  the  hypercritical  few  may 
think,  I  don't  care.  ...  I  have  originated  but  two 
stories  in  my  life,  but  I  tell  tolerably  well  other 
people's  stories."  In  Mr.  Depew's  opinion  Lin 
coln's  appreciation  of  humor  was  wonderful,  but 
his  estimate  of  it  was  not  very  critical.  Certainly 
it  was  not  captious.  Fineness  and  coarseness,  col 
loquialism  and  sublimity,  were  mixed  in  him  in  a 
fashion  seldom  rivalled.  Intelligent  observers 
have  compared  him  to  Socrates,  but  Leonard 
Swett  gives  a  more  vivid  impression  when  he 


120  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

says,  "  No  one  who  knew  him  ever  knew  another 
man  like  him." 

To  this  period,  stretching  from  his  term  in 
Washington  to  the  return  of  political  activity 
after  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
belongs  one  short  letter  to  his  brother  which 
shows  what  feeling  was  left  in  him  for  his  father, 
and  also  gives  one  side  of  the  case  in  the  dis 
cussion,  never  to  be  settled,  about  his  religion. 
Toward  his  father,  of  whom  he  said  to  Swett  that 
his  father  wished  him  to  have  a  good  education, 
but  that  his  idea  of  a  good  education  was  that  he 
should  cipher  clear  through  the  old  arithmetic  in 
the  house,  —  toward  this  enlightened  parent  Lin 
coln's  attitude  remained  just  and  cold.  Certainly 
the  religion  which  he  deals  out  to  him  will 
not  have  the  sound  of  intimate  reality  to  every 
reader.  The  letter,  which  is  dated  January  12, 
1851,  reads:  — 

"  You  already  know  I  desire  that  neither  Father  or 
Mother  shall  be  in  want  of  any  comfort  either  in  health 
or  sickness  while  they  live ;  and  I  feel  sure  you  have 
not  failed  to  use  my  name,  if  necessary,  to  procure  a 
doctor,  or  anything  else  for  Father  in  his  present  sick 
ness.  My  business  is  such  that  I  could  hardly  leave 
home  now,  if  it  were  not,  as  it  is,  that  my  own  wife  is 
sick  abed  (it  is  a  case  of  baby-sickness,  and  I  suppose 
is  not  dangerous).  I  sincerely  hope  Father  may  yet 
recover  his  health  ;  but  at  all  events  tell  him  to  remem 
ber  to  call  upon  and  confide  in  our  great,  and  good,  and 


LINCOLN   AS   A  LAWYER  121 

merciful  Maker,  who  will  not  turn  away  from  him  in 
any  extremity.  He  notes  the  fall  of  a  sparrow,  and 
numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads;  and  He  will  not  for 
get  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust  in  Him.  Say  to 
him  that  if  we  could  meet  now,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it 
would  not  be  more  painful  than  pleasant;  but  that  if  it 
be  his  lot  to  go  now  he  will  soon  have  a  joyous  meeting 
with  many  loved  ones  gone  before,  and  where  the  rest 
of  us,  through  the  help  of  God,  hope  ere  long  to  join 
them." 

Of  all  the  details  of  this  period  of  legal  prac 
tice,  however,  the  most  dramatic  incident  is  one 
of  the  last,  belonging  to  the  summer  of  1857 
after  his  new  political  activity  was  well  under 
way,  and  connected  with  a  visit  to  Cincinnati 
on  the  case  of  McCormick  vs.  Manny.  There 
he  was  not  only  treated  with  rude  contempt  by 
a  more  prominent  lawyer,  who  looked  upon  him 
as  a  backwoodsman,  but  the  somewhat  imagina 
tive  account  adds  that  this  lawyer  even  spoke 
scornfully,  within  his  hearing,  of  the  ridiculous 
appearance  of  the  apparition  from  Illinois.  At 
any  rate,  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  Lin 
coln  was  wounded.  Five  years  later  he  made  his 
insulter  Secretary  of  War,  and  thereby  was  able 
to  add  to  this  first  experience  numberless  other 
proofs  of  magnanimous  patience  in  enduring  the 
brutal  absence  of  decent  personal  feeling  in  Ed 
win  M.  Stanton.  He  could  say  of  a  certain 
singer  in  a  light-hearted  way,  "  She  is  the  only 


122  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


woman  that  ever  appreciated  me  enough  to  pay 
me  a  compliment,"  and  make  other  similar  jests 
at  his  own  grotesqueness,  but  enough  is  known 
of  his  real  sensitiveness  to  suggest  what  deep 
strength  was  required  to  take  all  the  rough  treat 
ment  he  received  from  Stanton  and  so  many 
others  with  that  distant,  kind,  patient  reason 
ableness  that  seems  more  wonderful  the  more 
it  is  thought  of.  His  was  the  highest  dignity. 
He  was  unhappy,  kind,  and  alone.  Most  of  his 
friends  speak  as  if  they  did  not  feel  they  really 
knew  him,  and  Swett  once  said,  "You  cannot 
tell  what  Lincoln  is  going  to  do,  until  he  does  it." 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    DOUGLAS    DEBATES 

LINCOLN'S  return  to  political  activity  was  caused 
by  the  same  changes  that  created  the  Republican 
party  and  the  Civil  War.  During  his  comparative 
quiescence  he  had  not  lost  the  leadership  of  the 
Illinois  Whigs,  and  he  took  what  steps  the  politi 
cal  situation  demanded.  .In  the  campaign  of  1852 
he  made  a  few  speeches  in  favor  of  Scott,  but  at 
that  time  both  parties  avoided  the  real  issue,  pre 
tending  to  think  the  "compromise"  of  1850  final 
—  that  compromise  which  gave  the  South  every 
thing,  provided  for  a  stricter  fugitive  slave  law, 
removed  the  barriers  to  slavery,  repealed  the 
Missouri  Compromise  by  taking  the  whole  subject 
out  of  the  control  of  Congress,  and  yet  received  the 
support  of  Daniel  Webster,  marked  by  his  great 
and  notorious  speech  of  the  yth  of  March.  Lin 
coln  was  interested,  especially  after  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  in  1854  openly  declared  repealed, 
and  even  when  he  was  not  actively  speaking  he 
was  thinking.  He  read  all  the  best  speeches  of 
Giddings,  Phillips,  Sumner,  Seward,  and  Parker, 
as  well  as  controversial  and  historical  books  upon 
the  subject,  and  he  contributed  editorial  writings 

123 


124  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

to  the  Springfield  Journal at  intervals  until  1860. 
That  he  was  also  alive  to  the  game  of  politics  is 
indicated  by  Herndon's  story  of  his  trick,  en 
dorsed  by  Lincoln,  by  which  a  pro-slavery  paper 
was  induced  to  publish  an  article  so  extreme  as 
to  be  damaging  to  its  own  cause,  after  which 
the  anti-slavery  people  who  had  got  it  printed 
turned  in  and  denounced  it.  To  find  his  genu 
ine  feelings  on  slavery  wholly  disconnected  from 
any  political  considerations  it  is  safest  to  turn  to 
a  letter  to  his  only  intimate  friend,  Speed,  August 
25,  1855.  Speed  had  written  to  Lincoln  protest 
ing  against  his  opinions,  and  Lincoln  explains  at 
length  that,  while  he  would  not  interfere,  against 
the  law,  with  the  property  of  Speed  or  any  other 
slaveholder,  he  thinks  the  vital  difference  be 
tween  them  is  that  his  friend  looks  upon  this 
property  as  on  any  other,  while  he  himself  sees 
it  as  a  deep  wrong  that  must  be  endured  but  not 
allowed  to  spread.  "  In  1841  you  and  I  had 
together  a  tedious  low-water  trip  on  a  steamboat 
from  Louisville  to  St.  Louis.  You  may  remem 
ber  as  well  as  I  do  that  from  Louisville  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio  there  were  on  board  ten  or  a 
dozen  slaves  shackled  together  with  irons.  That 
sight  was  a  constant  torture  to  me."  On  the 
great  issue  of  the  day  he  remarks,  "  You  say 
that  if  Kansas  fairly  votes  herself  a  free  state, 
as  a  Christian  you  will  rejoice  at  it.  All  decent 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          125 

slaveholders  talk  that  way,  and  I  don't  .  doubt 
their  candor,  but  they  never  vote  that  way."  He 
indignantly  denies  any  sympathy  with  the  Know- 
Nothing  or  American  party,  which  consisted  of 
crusaders  against  Catholics  and  foreigners,  and 
exclaims  that  if  such  ideas  should  ever  get  con 
trol  he  would  rather  emigrate  to  some  country, 
like  Russia,  where  despotism  could  be  taken 
pure,  with  no  hypocritical  talk  about  freedom 
and  equality.  As  late  as  the  Douglas  campaign, 
May  15,  1858,  he  wrote  to  E.  B.  Washburne  that 
the  principal  danger  of  defeat  came  from  the 
American  party. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Lincoln  that  one  of  the 
sharpest  blows  to  the  excesses  of  the  slavery  party 
was  given  by  the  Democratic  leader  from  his  own 
state.  Senator  Douglas  in  1854  took  part  in  the 
conflict  on  the  status  of  slavery  in  the  region 
which  is  now  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  then  seeking 
admission  as  territories.  He  introduced  his 
"  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,"  which,  establishing  those 
territories,  expressly  declared  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  inoperative  in  them,  and  an  amendment 
soon  declared  that  compromise  inconsistent  with 
the  legislation  of  1850,  which  denied  any  right  of 
intervention  by  Congress  with  slavery  in  terri 
tories.  This  amendment  now  added  the  word 
states  to  territories  in  restricting  the  powers  of 
Congress  to  interfere.  A  clause  intended  to 


126  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

soften  this  blow  at  the  North  stated  that  the  in 
tention  was  to  leave  the  people  of  any  territory 
or  state  free  to  regulate  slavery  in  its  own  way, 
and  this  was  the  doctrine  of  "popular  sovereignty," 
so  soon  to  be  fought  out  between  Douglas  and 
Lincoln. 

When  Douglas  began  to  defend  himself  in  Illi 
nois,  where  his  concessions  to  the  South  had  aroused 
much  Democratic  hostility,  Lincoln  was  at  once 
chosen  by  the  opponents  of  slavery  as  the  proper 
champion  to  meet  the  Little  Giant.  He  made 
such  an  effective  answer  to  Douglas  at  the  great 
state  fair  in  October  that  the  abolitionists,  under 
the  lead  of  Owen  Lovejoy,  announced  a  meeting 
for  that  evening  with  the  purpose  of  getting  Lin 
coln  to  speak  and  commit  himself  to  extreme 
views.  On  the  advice  of  his  partner,  however, 
who  was  as  cautious  as  he  was  abolitionist,  Lin 
coln  found  he  had  business  which  compelled  him 
to  drive  hastily  out  of  town  that  afternoon.  Two 
principles  evidently  contended  within  him  from 
this  time  forward.  He  was  always  a  conservative 
and  practical  politician,  but  he  was  always  a  man 
of  conviction  and  courage,  and  he  was  now  keenly 
wrought  up  over  slavery.  In  his  days  in  Congress 
he  had  sometimes  been  invited  to  the  Saturday 
breakfasts  of  the  great  Daniel  Webster,  to  meet 
the  "  solid  men  of  Boston,"  but  none  of  the  spirit 
of  concession  to  property  interests  that  ruined 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          127 

Webster  had  ever  poisoned  Lincoln.  The  moral 
reality  of  the  problem  was  always  alive  and  burn 
ing  in  him,  and  when  he  refused  to  go  faster  than 
a  certain  pace  it  was  with  a  view  to  final  victory 
and  not  to  surrender.  He  knew  that  if  no  mis 
takes  were  made  the  natural  course  of  events 
would  stamp  out  the  evil  through  the  increasing 
power  of  the  North.  To  the  efforts  of  the  South 
to  offset  this  inevitable  outcome  by  forcing  slavery 
into  those  states  and  territories  in  which  the 
majority  wished  to  exclude  it,  he  was  deeply  op 
posed,  and  that  was  to  be  the  vital  issue  of  the 
immediate  future.  "  He  grew  because  we  watered 
him,"  said  Wendell  Phillips,  the  famous  abolition 
ist  orator,  speaking  one  of  the  numberless  calum 
nies  of  his  sect  against  Lincoln.  From  the 
outbreak  of  the  controversy  to  its  end  he  was 
for  final  extinction  of  the  evil,  and  he  waited  only 
for  means.  He  knew  what  could  be  done  in  a 
land  governed  by  popular  opinion  and  what  could 
not,  and  Phillips  and  his  friends  watered  him  only 
indirectly  as  they  prepared  the  public. 

In  the  winter  of  1854-55  he  was  elected  against 
his  will  to  the  Illinois  legislature,  but  resigned, 
that  there  might  be  no  doubt  about  his  eligibility 
for  the  United  States  Senate.  A  little  wave  of 
reaction  elected  a  Democrat  in  his  place.  When 
the  legislature  came  to  vote  for  Senator  in  Febru 
ary,  Lincoln  had  45  on  .the  first  ballot,  Shields 


128  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

41,  Trumbull  5,  with  a  few  scattering.  A  few 
ballots  showed  that  Lincoln  could  not  be  elected, 
he  being  supposed  to  be  too  much  tainted  with 
abolitionism,  and  then  he  induced  his  followers, 
against  their  will,  to  elect  Trumbull,  a  Democrat, 
but  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
policy  of  Senator  Douglas. 

In  the  convention  held  in  1856  by  the  newly 
born  Republican  party,  which  came  into  being  in 
1854  to  concentrate  the  anti-slavery  elements  of 
the  other  organizations,  John  C.  Fremont  was 
nominated  for  President  and  William  L.  Dayton 
for  Vice-President,  Dayton  receiving  on  the  first 
ballot  259  votes  to  Lincoln's  no,  a  result  which 
speaks  much  for  the  Illinois  leader's  general  repu 
tation  before  the  Douglas  debates  attracted 
national  attention.  At  the  head  of  the  electoral 
ticket  in  the  state  he  made  some  imperfectly  re 
ported  but  sufficiently  pronounced  speeches.  An 
earlier  one  at  Bloomingdale  May  29,  at  a  state 
convention  of  the  "  opponents  of  anti-Nebraska 
legislation  "  is  well  known  through  its  effect  on 
the  hearers,  and  a  rather  good  report  of  this  "  Lin 
coln's  lost  speech  "  has  recently  been  made  pub 
lic.  It  was  fervid  and  fearless.  The  contrast 
between  his  feelings  and  the  Springfield  atmos 
phere  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  when  Herndon 
and  Lincoln  tried  to  get  up  a  mass-meeting  to 
endorse  the  action  of  this  convention,  only  one 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          129 

other  man  attended.  During  the  following  cam 
paign  at  Galena,  in  August,  Lincoln  said,  "  We 
do  not  want  to  dissolve  the  Union  ;  you  shall  not." 
December  10,  after  the  election,  he  said:  "Our 
government  rests  in  public  opinion.  Whoever 
can  change  public  opinion  can  change  the  govern 
ment  practically  just  so  much.  Public  opinion, 
on  any  subject,  always  has  a  '  central  idea '  from 
which  all  its  minor  thoughts  radiate.  That  '  cen 
tral  idea '  in  our  political  public  opinion  at  the 
beginning  was,  and  until  recently  has  continued 
to  be,  '  the_equality  of  men.'  The  late  presiden 
tial  election  was  a  struggle  by  one  party  to  dis 
card  that  central  idea  and  to  substitute  for  it  the 
opposite  idea  that  slavery  is  right  in  the  abstract. 
.  .  .  To  us  it  is  left  to  know  that  the  majority  of 
the  people  have  not  yet  declared  for  it,  and  to 
hope  they  never  will.  All  of  us  who  did  not  vote 
for  Mr.  Buchanan,  taken  together,  are  a  majority 
of  400,000.  But  in  the  late  contest  we  were  di 
vided  between  Fremont  and  Fillmore.  Can  we 
not  come  together  for  the  future  ?  " 

Buchanan's  election  was  immediately  followed 
by  a  judicial  decision  which  helped  solidify  the 
friends  of  freedom.  This  was  the  famous  Dred 
Scott  case,  in  which  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  decided  that  the  state  court  of 
Missouri  could  determine  for  itself  whether  a 
slave  from  that  state,  who  had  lived  in  freedom 


130  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

elsewhere,  could  afterward  be  held  in  slavery 
by  his  master  in  Missouri,  and  that  temporary 
residence  in  a  free  state  did  not  give  him  free 
dom.  In  thus  refusing  to  interfere,  the  federal 
court  practically  decided  what  Lincoln  summed 
up  fairly  when  he  said  that  it  was  "  singular '  that 
the  courts  would  hold  that  a  man  never  lost  his 
right  to  his  property  that  had  been  stolen  from 
him,  but  that  he  instantly  lost  the  right  to  him 
self  if  he  was  stolen."  This  case  was  argued  for 
the  slave  at  the  first  hearing  by  Montgomery 
Blair,  afterward  a  member  of  Lincoln's  cabinet, 
and  at  the  second  hearing  by  Blair  and  George 
Ticknor  Curtis.  So  intense  was  the  feeling 
about  the  whole  subject  at  issue  that  the  judges 
instead  of  ordinary  opinions  wrote  elaborate 
essays  on  all  branches  of  the  slavery  topic, 
which  did  much  to  fan  the  already  raging 
flames.  Chief  Justice  Taney's  majority  opinion, 
going  to  the  extreme  of  the  pro-slavery  posi 
tion,  soon  after  furnished  Lincoln  with  many 
of  his  points  of  attack,  including  the  principle, 
not  before  the  court,  that  slavery  could  be  ex 
cluded  from  a  territory  neither  by  Congress  nor 
by  a  territorial  legislature. 

This  obiter  theory  was  accepted  and  defended 
by  Douglas,  whose  most  difficult  task  was  to 
make  it  fit  into  his  own  doctrine  of  popular 
sovereignty.  In  a  speech  at  Springfield,  June 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          131 

12,  1857,  he  covered  the  opinions  of  Taney  and 
the  other  concurring  judges  with  florid  eulogy. 
He  accepted  the  positions  that  a  negro  de 
scended  from  slave  parents  could  not  be  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  being  unconstitutional  and 
void  even  before  it  was  repealed  by  the  Ne 
braska  act,  did  not  extinguish  a  master's  right 
to  his  slave  in  the  territory  covered  by  it.  He 
then  proceeded :  "  While  the  right  continues 
in  full  force  under  the  guarantees  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  cannot  be  divested  or  alienated 
by  an  act  of  Congress,  it  necessarily  remains  a 
barren  and  a  worthless  right,  unless  sustained, 
protected,  and  enforced  by  appropriate  police 
regulations  and  local  legislation,  prescribing 
adequate  remedies  for  its  violation."  As  this 
legislation  would  depend  on  the  will  of  the 
voters  in  the  territory,  Douglas  pretended  that 
he  had  saved  the  principle  of  popular  sov 
ereignty. 

Lincoln  answered  this  speech  at  Springfield, 
June  27,  covering  points  which  were  fully  fought 
out  in  the  later  debates,  and  saying  in  answer 
to  Douglas's  appeal  to  the  strong  race  pre 
judice  in  Illinois,  these  well-known  sentences: 
"  I  protest  against  the  counterfeit  logic  which 
concludes  that  because  I  do  not  want  a  black 
woman  for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily  want  her 


132  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for  either.  I 
can  just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects  she 
certainly  is  not  my  equal ;  but  in  her  natural 
right  to  eat  the  bread  she  earns  with  her  own 
hands,  without  asking  leave  of  any  one  else, 
she  is  my  equal  and  the  equal  of  all  others." 
This  last  sentence  was  praised  by  a  friend,  and 
Lincoln  said,  "  Then  I  will  get  it  off  again," 
which  he  did.  When  he  made  a  good  point  he 
habitually  stuck  to  it. 

The  slavery  issue  had  led  at  its  height  in 
Kansas  to  civil  war,  just  as  in  Congress  it  led 
to  an  unprovoked  assault  on  Charles  Sumner 
as  he  sat  quietly  in  his  chair.  Although  this 
physical  warfare  ceased  in  the  fall  of  1856,  the 
situation  then  was  still  watched  with  the  utmost 
anxiety  from  all  over  the  country ;  Kansas  was 
still  the  centre  of  the  slavery  conflict,  and 
the  two  factions,  Northern  and  Southern  emi 
grants,  stood  ready  for  more  trouble  at  any 
moment.  By  the  use  of  United  States  troops, 
in  October,  1857,  Governor  Walker  secured 
a  fair  election,  and  the  Republicans'  delegate 
was  elected  to  Congress  by  more  than  two 
to  one.  Nevertheless  a  fraudulently  conducted 
convention  at  Lecompton  drew  up  a  constitu 
tion  practically  committing  the  state  to  slavery, 
but  this,  after  a  fraudulent  election,  was  re 
jected,  overwhelmingly,  at  a  second  and  honest 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          133 

vote.  Buchanan  then  determined  to  secure  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution  against  the  will  of 
the  people,  which  decision  brought  out  the  lion 
in  Douglas.  The  Little  Giant  told  the  Presi 
dent  that  if  that  constitution  was  recommended 
in  the  annual  message  he  would  denounce  it. 
Buchanan  warned  him  that  in  opposing  the 
administration  he  would  be  crushed,  but  Doug 
las,  who  although  shifty  was  not  cowardly, 
made  an  insolent  reply,  and  immediately  began 
to  defend  his  position  before  the  country,  say 
ing  in  the  South,  December  9,  1857:  "If  Kan 
sas  wants  a  slave  constitution  she  has  a  right 
to  it ;  if  she  wants  a  free  state  constitution  she 
has  a  right  to  it.  It  is  none  of  my  business 
which  way  the  slavery  clause  is  decided.  I  care 
not  whether  the  slavery  clause  is  voted  down 
or  voted  up."  He  declared  that  he  would  re 
sist  any  violation  of  the  principle  of  free  govern 
ment  to  the  last.  A  fraudulent  election  was 
held  and  the  slavery  constitution  endorsed  by 
Buchanan  and  the  Senate,  but  it  was  rejected 
by  the  House.  Another  attempt  in  the  same 
direction,  though  a  little  less  flagrant,  called 
the  English  bill,  was  resisted  by  Douglas,  passed 
by  both  Houses,  signed  by  the  President,  and 
rejected  almost  unanimously  by  Kansas.  With 
this  record  Douglas  was  endorsed  in  April  by 
the  Illinois  Democratic  State  Committee,  which 


134  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

meant  that  he  would  be  their  candidate  for  the 
Senate  again  in  the  fall.  In  the  Republican 
State  Convention  of  June  16,  1858,  it  was  re 
solved  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  first  and 
only  choice  for  United  States  Senator  to  fill 
the  vacancy  about  to  be  created  by  the  ex 
piration  of  Douglas's  term. 

The  speech  of  acknowledgment  made  by  Lin 
coln  was  believed  by  him  at  the  time,  and  proved 
later  by  events,  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
utterances  of  his  career.  Knowing  that  he  would 
probably  be  the  candidate  of  his  party  he  medi 
tated  his  words  for  weeks,  jotting  down  on  stray 
envelopes  and  bits  of  paper  any  phrase  with 
which  he  was  favorably  struck,  and  then  finally 
arranging  the  whole,  so  that  when  the  expected 
hour  came  his  speech  was  not  only  written  and 
deeply  considered,  but  committed  to  memory. 
The  day  before  reciting  it  publicly  he  read  it  to 
a  few  friends.  All  except  Herndon  looked  upon 
the  following  sentences  as  little  short  of  fatal: 
«  We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy 
was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  confident 
purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation. 
Under  the  operation  of  that  policy  it  has  not 
only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented. 
In  my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis 
shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  '  A^Jiouse 

cannot  stand.'       I   believe 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES 


135 


this  government  cannot  endure  permanently  half 
slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to 
fall  —  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided. 
It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the 
further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction ;  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward,  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  —  North  as  well  as 
South." 

To  the  protests  of  his  friends  that  so  bold  a 
statement  would  wreck  him,  Lincoln  replied,  with 
firmness,  that  if  he  had  to  erase  all  of  his  life  ex 
cept  one  poor  record,  he  would  choose  to  save 
that  speech,  and  that  he  would  rather  be  defeated 
with  the  '  house  divided  against  itself '  in  the 
speech,  than  victorious  without  it.  This  deter 
mination  has  been  interpreted  by  some  as  all 
principle,  by  others  as  keen  policy,  which  saw 
that  the  man  who  was  to  have  the  support  of  the 
Republicans  must  take  an  early  stand  on  a  posi 
tion  that  was  inevitable.  It  would  be  at  least  as 
consistent  with  the  general  trend  of  Lincoln's 
nature  if  policy  and  principle  were  not  seen  as 
separate  by  him  in  this  case,  but  as  one  and  the 
same.  He  is  reported  to  have  declared  to  pro 
testors  that  it  would  some  day  be  recognized  as 


136  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

the  wisest  thing  he  ever  said.  He  believed  that 
it  was  true.  It  was  a  truth  also  that  was  alive. 
Not  improbably  he  believed  that  it  would  be  a 
more  distinct  issue  in  1860  than  it  was  then. 
Very  probably  he  thought,  as  Douglas  was  the 
inventor  of  the  temporizing  doctrine  of  popular 
sovereignty,  that  if  there  was  any  way  to  beat  him 
it  was  by  confronting  him  boldly.  Lincoln  was 
deeply  honest,  but  his  honesty  was  not  foolish. 
The  time  when  he  spoke  was  usually  the  time 
when  it  was  wisest  to  speak. 

His  speech  went  on  to  make  more  distinct 
what  he  meant.  After  going  over  the  legislation 
of  1850,  the  Nebraska  Bill,  and  the  Dred  Scott 
doctrine,  he  said  that  all  that  was  needed  was  a 
decision  by  the  Supreme  Court  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  does  not  permit  a  state 
to  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits.  "  We  shall  lie 
down  pleasantly  dreaming  that  the  people  of 
Missouri  are  on  the  verge  of  making  their  state 
free  ;  and  we  shall  awake  to  the  reality  instead, 
that  the  Supreme  Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave 
state." 

One  important  point  was  the  considerable 
Republican  support  of  Douglas.  Lincoln  urged 
that  the  cause  must  be  intrusted  to  its  real 
friends,  those  who  cared  for  the  result,  not  to 
those  who,  like  Douglas,  were  indifferent  whether 
slavery  was  voted  up  or  down.  Horace  Greeley's, 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          137 

preference  for  Douglas  was  well  known,  and  was 
doubtless  founded,  as  Lincoln  himself  said  it  was, 
on  the  belief  that  to  elect  so  powerful  a  convert 
would  be  the  best  aid  to  the  anti-slavery  cause,  — 
the  consideration    which  probably  also  weighed 
most  with  the  other  Eastern  leaders  who  showed 
signs  of  hostility  or  lukewarmness  to  the  Repub 
lican  candidate.     To  demonstrate  not  only  to  his 
party  but  also  to  the  anti-slavery  Democrats  that) 
Douglas  was  not  a  real  convert,  was  to  be  Lin-  f 
coin's  chief  object  in  the  campaign.     "  They  re-/ 
mind  us,"  he  said,  in  one  of  his  many  passages  on 
this  point,  "  that  he  is  a  great  man,  and  that  the 
largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.     Let  this  be 
granted,  but '  a  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion.' 
Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion  for  this  work, 
is  at  least  a  caged  and  toothless  one.     How  can 
he  oppose  the  advances  of  slavery  ?     He  doesn't 
care  anything  about  it."     If  he  could  show  to  the 
North  that  his  opponent  was  not  willing  to  take 
strong  ground  against  the  spread  of  slavery,  and 
to  the  South,  already  angered  by  the   refusal   of 
Douglas  to  consent  to  gross  fraud,  that  he  was 
not  a  champion  of  their  cause,  Lincoln  doubtless 
believed   that  his  position    would    be   promising 
even  for  the  present  election,  in  the  doubtful  state 
of   public    opinion    in    Illinois,   and    much    more 
promising  a  little  later  when   the  issues  should 
be  more  sharply  drawn.     During  the  progress  of 


138  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

this  campaign  he  urged  Douglas  to  answer  this 
question  :  "  Can  the  people  of  the  United  States 
territory,  in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of 
any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery 
from  its  limits,  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  state 
constitution  ?  "  When  his  friends  objected  to 
having  this  point  pressed,  Lincoln  replied  that, 
whatever  might  be  the  effect  in  the  Senatorial 
fight,  Douglas  could  not  answer  the  question  and 
win  the  presidency  in  1860.  "  I  am  killing  larger 
game,"  Lincoln  is  reported  as  saying.  "  The 
battle  of  1860  is  worth  a  hundred  of  this."  That 
he  said  practically  this  is  reasonably  certain. 
That  he  thought  of  the  presidency  for  himself,  as 
all  American  politicians  do,  is  a  matter  of  course. 
That  he  referred  then  to  his  own  chances  is  ex 
tremely  doubtful.  Douglas  was  the  leader  of  one 
great  party.  Lincoln  was  an  ardent  Republican. 
In  all  probability  he  meant  that  he  was  killing  big 
game  for  his  party  and  his  principles  in  1860,  not 
for  his  own  personal  gain.  To  suppose  that  he 
was  "  taking  the  wind  out  of  Seward's  sails  "  is 
fanciful. 

To  race  prejudice  Douglas  appealed  with  con 
stant  energy.  Lincoln  answered  patiently,  re 
peating  his  distinction  about  the  slave  and  the 
wife,  making  other  telling  illustrations,  sometimes 
solemnly,  sometimes  wittily.  "  The  judge,"  he 
said  in  Chicago,  July  10,  1858,  "regales  us  with 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          139 

the  terrible  enormities  that  take  place  by  the 
mixture  of  races,  that  the  inferior  race  bears  the 
superior  down.  Why,  Judge,  if  we  don't  let  them 
get  together  in  the  territories  they  won't  mix 
there."  In  earnest  vein  he  pressed  the  analogy 
between  slavery  and  despotism,  between  kings 
and  slave-owners,  one  living  on  the  toil  of  an 
other.  In  his  style  the  impassioned  and  the 
elevated  were  mixed  with  the  racy  and  the  collo 
quial,  and  nothing  was  more  characteristic  of 
him  or  of  Illinois  than  a  demonstrated  truth 
followed  by  such  a  remark  as,  "  This  is  as  plain 
as  the  weight  of  three  small  hogs." 

Comparing  his  standing  with  his  opponent's, 
on  July  17,  Lincoln  remarked  that  all  the  anxious 
politicians  of  the  Democratic  party  expected 
Douglas  at  no  very  distant  day  to  be  President 
of  the  United  States.  In  his  "  round,  jolly,  fruit 
ful  "  face,  they  saw  possibilities  of  every  kind  of 
office,  "  bursting  and  sprouting  out  in  wonderful 
exuberance."  "  On  the  contrary,  nobody  has  ex-  ' 
pected  me  to  be  President.  In  my  poor,  lean, 
lank  face,  nobody  has  ever  seen  that  any  cabbages 
were  sprouting  out."  Douglas  referred  to  his 
antagonist  with  a  sort  of  genial  condescension, 
and  this  relation  of  superior  and  inferior  was 
seized  upon  and  given  half  ironic  emphasis  by 
the  adroit  Lincoln,  who  used  his  own  humbleness 
as  a  contrast  to  the  superiority  of  his  principles. 


140  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

He  argued  that  the  anti-slavery  cause  belonged 
in  no  sense  to  Douglas,  but  wholly  to  the  Repub 
lican  party ;  and  that  although  the  judge  and  the 
Republicans  were  at  one  on  the  anti-Nebraska 
fight,  there  was  no  reason  for  his  taking  so  much 
credit  to  himself  because  on  one  detail  he  agreed 
with  Lincoln's  party.  He  had  no  right  to  the 
standing  of  a  returning  sinner.  "  If  the  judge 
claims  the  benefit  of  that  parable,  let  him  repent." 
The  reader  of  this  speech  of  July  17  will  see 
in  it  a  large  part  of  the  points  clung  to  by  Lin 
coln  in  the  subsequent  joint  debates,  with  the 
same  arts  and  policy  of  the  orator.  If  Douglas 
could  appeal  loudly  to  race  prejudice,  Lincoln 
could  drop  a  passing  reference  to  the  assault  of 
Brooks  on  Sumner  and  the  praise  with  which  the 
unprovoked  and  cowardly  deed  was  greeted  at 
the  South.  In  attack  and  defence  Lincoln  shows 
that  he  is  equally  at  home,  as  far  as  clear  demon 
stration  is  concerned,  but  he  makes  a  much 
better  impression  when  he  is  dealing  blows  at  the 
inconsistency  of  his  opponent  and  the  immoral 
ity  of  his  cause,  than  when  he  is  explaining  away 
the  charges  of  abolitionism  constantly  urged  by 
Douglas.  Lincoln  replies  that  he  has  no  ambi 
tion  to  force  people  to  freeze  ice  in  Florida,  no 
desire  to  interfere  with  the  cranberry  laws  of 
Indiana  because  cranberries  did  not  grow  in 
Illinois,  but  the  fact  that  whatever  he  might  say 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          141 

about  non-interference  he  believed  and  wished 
that  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  would,  in 
some  way  or  other,  end  in  the  extinction  of 
slavery,  South  as  well  as  North,  had  to  be  met, 
and  it  was  kept  before  the  people  with  unremit 
ting  diligence  by  the  wily  judge. 

Lincoln,  on  July  24,  1858,  took  one  of  the 
wisest  steps  of  his  life  by  challenging  Douglas  to 
a  series  of  joint  debates.  The  judge  accepted 
for  seven  meetings,  which  were  held  in  the  pres 
ence  of  immense  crowds,  drawn  together  by  pro 
found  excitement  over  the  slavery  question  and 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  being  discussed  by  the 
two  ablest  speakers  in  Illinois.  Two  champions 
could  scarcely  be  in  clearer  contrast.  Douglas 
was  the  most  brilliant  leader  in  his  party,  bold, 
adroit,  subtle,  charming,  a  master  both  in  steady 
flow  of  sounding  language  and  in  all  the  tricks 
of  misinterpretation,  ambiguity,  and  plausible 
fallacy  necessary  to  confuse  an  opponent.  James 
G.  Elaine,  who  writes  that  Douglas  was  without 
either  wit  or  humor,  adds  that  as  an  orator  and 
debater  he  was  exactly  the  kind  for  the  almost 
physical  fight  demanded  by  such  a  stump  contest. 
This  same  astute  observer  not  only  said,  after  the 
fact,  that  Douglas  failed  to  look  ahead,  as  Lincoln 
did,  but  Lamon  tells  us  that  he  saw  in  Lincoln's 
possession,  shortly  before  his  death,  a  letter 
written  by  Elaine  during  the  campaign  of  1858 


142  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

and  widely  circulated,  in  which  he  ventured  the 
remarkable  prophecy  that  Douglas  would  beat 
Lincoln  for  the  senatorship  but  would  be  beaten 
by  him  in  1860  for  the  presidency. 

Lincoln,  inferior  to  Douglas  in  nimble  fencing, 
although  no  mean  hand  at  that  game  himself, 
relied  mainly  on  his  power  to  hit  straight  blows. 
His  manner  as  well  as  his  mind  accomplished 
much  when  it  was  earnest.  It  was  when  his 
shrill  voice  grew  warm  with  conviction,  and  his 
dark  yellow  face  lighted  up  with  intensity,  that  he 
struck  the  listeners  with  a  kind  of  confidence 
never  given  by  his  opponent.  Horace  Greeley, 
certainly  not  too  favorable,  said  that  Lincoln  be 
came  the  foremost  convincer  of  his  time,  the  one 
who  could  do  his  cause  more  good  and  less  harm 
than  any  other  living  man.  In  this  campaign 
canvassing,  in  these  stump  battles  before  all  sorts 
of  men,  the  speaker,  if  his  statement  of  the  case 
does  not  produce  conviction,  "justifies,  varies,  re- 
enforces  it,"  and  while  he  educates  his  hearers  he 
educates  himself.  In  this  kind  of  struggle,  where 
the  subject  was  thrashed  out  between  the  orators 
and  the  audience,  Lincoln's  native  love  of  truth 
made  him  grow  more  strong  and  clear  with  every 
speech,  both  in  his  comprehension  of  the  various 
aspects  of  the  great  issue,  and  in  that  understand 
ing  of  the  average  American  mind  which  lay  at 
the  foundation  of  his  greatness  as  a  war  president. 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          143 

The  first  of  the  joint  debates  was  held  at 
Ottawa,  on  August  21.  Douglas,  in  accepting 
the  challenge,  had  chosen  to  open  and  close  four 
times  to  his  rival's  three,  but  Lincoln  was  too 
eager  for  the  fray  to  be  stopped  by  such  an  ad 
vantage.  Douglas  in  this  first  joint  debate 
charged  that  in  1854  "Lincoln  went  to  work  to 
abolitionize  the  old  Whig  party  all  over  the 
state."  He  showered  the  term  "  Black  Republi 
can  "  on  him  and  his  associates.  He  accused  him 
of  hostility  to  the  Mexican  War,  and  even  went  off 
into  side-tracks  of  misrepresentation  to  amuse  his 
audience  and  waste  his  opponent's  time  in  reply. 
He  told  with  mock  admiration  how  nobly  Lincoln 
presided  at  fist-fights  and  horse-races,  and  how 
he  "  could  ruin  more  liquor  than  all  the  boys  of 
the  town  together." 

The  audience  at  such  an  encounter  was  not 
overburdened  with  awe  or  etiquette,  but  both 
speakers  knew  how  to  manage  it.  While  Lin 
coln  was  trying  to  explain  the  speech  which  he 
had  made  in  the  contest  of  1854,  a  voice  in  the 
crowd  cried,  "  Put  on  your  specs."  "  Yes,  sir," 
replied  Lincoln,  "  I  am  obliged  to ;  I  am  no 
longer  a  young  man."  Not  only  disrespectful 
jests  but  searching  questions  were  likely  to  be 
shouted  out  of  the  throng  at  any  moment,  and 
each  combatant  had  to  be  either  fertile  in  re 
sources  or  certain  of  his  ground.  Douglas  was 


144  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

one.  Lincoln  was  both.  It  is  not  difficult,  in 
reading  the  speeches  now,  in  cold  blood,  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  issue,  to  see  the  superiority  of 
Lincoln's,  nor  is  it  difficult  to  see  the  brilliant 
skill  with  which  Douglas  kept  the  contest  on  the 
points  most  dangerous  to  his  adversary.  One 
of  the  lighter  replies  in  this  first  battle  has  a  par 
ticular  flavor  of  Lincoln's  character.  Douglas 
had  spoken  of  him,  in  his  superior  way,  as  a 
"  kind,  amiable,  and  intelligent  gentleman."  Lin 
coln  pretended  to  be  overjoyed  with  such  praise 
from  such  a  source,  and  likened  himself  to  the 
hoozier  who  said  he  reckoned  he  loved  ginger 
bread  better  than  any  other  man,  and  got  less 
of  it. 

The  second  meeting  took  place  August  27,  at 
Freeport.  The  state  of  public  feeling  in  Illinois 
is  indicated  by  the  stress  that  the  judge  thought 
it  wise  to  put  on  the  fact  that  the  negro  Fred 
Douglass  had  been  seen  driving  with  a  white 
woman.  It  was  apparently  one  of  the  most  ex 
cited  of  the  meetings,  with  interruptions  which 
led  Douglas  to  charge  one  element  of  the  crowd 
with  vulgarity  and  blackguardism.  Lincoln  re 
plied  that  he  should  not  receive  any  vulgarity 
and  blackguardism  himself  because  he  would  not 
inflict  any.  Personalities  were  pretty  severe  in 
this  debate,  and  also  in  the  next,  September  15, 
at  Janesboro,  containing  an  elaborately  disputed 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          145 

question  of  veracity.  In  the  fourth  debate  at 
Charlestown,  September  18,  Lincoln  explained 
clearly  that  he  was  not  in  favor  of  giving  the 
negroes  votes,  the  right  to  sit  on  juries,  or  any 
sort  of  social  equality;  but  just  as  clearly  in  the 
sixth,  October  13,  at  Quincy,  he  insisted  on  the 
moral  foundation  of  the  whole  political  question. 
Throughout  Lincoln's  whole  career,  two  points 
of  view  must  be  kept  in  mind,  and  then  his  atti 
tude  will  be  seen  to  be  surprisingly  consistent. 
One  aspect  is  what  he  wished  for  in  the  end,  and 
that  was  universal  freedom,  but  only  such  politi 
cal  and  social  equality  as  progress  by  the  negroes 
should  invite.  The  other  aspect  is  what  he  would 
advise  doing  under  the  immediate  circumstances, 
and  in  treating  that  side  he  went  so  far  as  to  say 
he  would  not  have  all  fugitive  slave  laws  done 
away  with,  and,  of  course,  he  would  not  interfere 
with  slavery  in  slave  states.  The  hardest  ques 
tion  Douglas  pressed  in  the  whole  debate  was 
one  that  Lincoln  long  hesitated  to  answer,  finally 
acknowledging  that  he  would  vote  to  admit  to 
the  Union,  under  slave  constitution,  territory 
owned  by  the  United  States,  provided  the  in 
habitants  desired  to  have  slavery.  Douglas  also 
gave  Lincoln  trouble  over  the  Dred  Scott  deci 
sion,  for  while  it  was  easy,  consistent,  and  rea 
sonable  to  hold  that  the  law  must  be  recognized 
as  long  as  it  existed,  but  that  it  would  probably 


146  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

some  time  cease  to  be  law,  this  was  not  an  easy 
distinction  to  force  through  all  the  intricacies  of 
debate.  Douglas,  on  the  other  hand,  was  troubled 
by  Lincoln's  questions  about  the  right  of  the  peo 
ple  in  a  territory  to  exclude  slavery  prior  to  the 
formation  of  a  state  constitution,  and  about  the 
right  of  slaveholders  in  territories  to  have  their 
property  protected  by  Congress.  Over  the  first 
question  he  wriggled  furiously  and  created  the 
u  Freeport  Doctrine  "  of  popular  sovereignty, 
which  ultimately  destroyed  him.  When  the 
second  was  put  he  exclaimed,  "  Repeat  that ;  I 
want  to  answer  that  question."  But  he  never 
did.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  comba 
tants  chose  their  points  not  solely  for  the  crowd 
in  front  of  them,  but  for  leisurely  readers  of  the 
newspapers,  and  in  the  end  it  was  by  them  that 
the  answers  of  Douglas  were  weighed  and  found 
wanting. 

The  last  debate  was  at  Alton,  on  October  15. 
The  election  followed  soon,  and  Douglas  won. 
In  popular  vote  the  Republicans  had  a  small  plu 
rality,  but  the  legislature,  which  elected  the  sena 
tor  was  slightly  Democratic  in  both  branches. 
On  November  15,  Lincoln  wrote:  "Douglas 
had  the  ingenuity  to  be  supported  in  the  late 
contest  both  as  the  best  means  to  break  down 
and  to  uphold  the  slave  interest.  No  ingenuity 
can  keep  these  antagonistic  elements  in  har- 


THE   DOUGLAS   DEBATES  147 

mony  long.  Another  explosion  will  soon  come." 
Horace  Greeley  says  that  on  the  real  issue  fought 
out  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  Illinois  was 
about  equally  divided,  and  that  in  the  autumn 
Douglas  was  elected  after  borrowing  and  disburs 
ing  in  the  canvass  $80,000,  a  debt  which  weighed 
him  down  to  the  grave,  while  Lincoln,  who  had 
spent  less  than  $1000,  came  out  stronger  politi 
cally  than  he  went  in.  Herndon  tells  us  about 
George  B.  McClellan's  taking  Douglas  around  in 
a  special  train,  while  Lincoln  sometimes  found  it 
hard  to  secure  a  seat  when  he  was  exhausted. 
Whatever  details  counted  in  the  result,  there 
seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  the  fight  was  carried 
on  with  such  ability  that  each  combatant  gained 
admiration  from  his  party  and  the  country,  al 
though  it  is  probably  also  true  that  the  thorough 
airing  given  to  the  views  of  Douglas  did  much  to 
deprive  him  in  1860  of  Southern  support  on  the 
one  hand  and  Northern  support  on  the  other. 

After  this  campaign  Lincoln  found  himself  hard 
pressed  for  money.  His  income  from  the  law, 
according  to  his  partner,  was  not  over  $3000, 
and  there  were  current  political  expenses.  He 
tried  lecturing,  one  address  on  "  Inventions " 
being  delivered  in  several  towns,  but  his  failure 
was  so  evident  that  he  soon  abandoned  the  ex 
periment.  While  he  did  some  law  work,  he  kept 
very  actively  in  politics.  He  had  tried  to  get  the 


148  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Springfield  publishers  to  print  his  speeches  and 
those  of  Douglas  in  a  book,  but  they  had  refused. 
In  1859  the  Republican  State  Committee  asked 
for  their  publication,  and  the  next  year  they 
were  printed  at  Columbus  and  used  as  campaign 
documents. 

He  followed  Douglas  to  Ohio  in  a  guberna 
torial  contest  in  September,  1859,  and  made 
some  speeches.  In  one  of  these  speeches  he 
said:  "Now,  what  is  Judge  Douglas's  popular 
sovereignty  ?  It  is  as  a  principle  no  other  than 
that,  if  one  man  chooses  to  make  a  slave  of  an 
other  man,  neither  that  other  man  nor  anybody 
else  has  a  right  to  object."  Again,  of  Douglas : 
"  I  suppose  the  institution  of  slavery  really  looks 
small  to  him.  He  is  so  put  up  by  nature  that  a 
lash  upon  his  back  would  hurt  him,  but  a  lash 
upon  anybody  else's  back  does  not  hurt  him." 
The  following  month  he  received  an  invitation  to 
speak  during  the  winter  in  New  York.  Herndon 
had  some  time  previously  made  a  trip  East  for 
the  purpose  of  conciliating  the  Republican  lead 
ers,  but  nothing  did  so  much  to  strengthen  Lin 
coln  in  this  part  of  the  country  as  a  speech  which 
he  delivered  at  Cooper  Union  on  February  27. 
Horace  Greeley  says  that  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  canvasser,  by  which  he  means  the  per 
suader  of  all  sorts  of  men,  it  is  the  very  best 
address  to  which  he  ever  listened,  "  and  I  have 


THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES          149 

heard  some  of  Webster's  grandest."  The  oppor 
tunity  to  make  this  great  speech,  like  the  invi 
tations  of  the  preceding  year  to  speak  all  over 
the  Northwest,  grew  directly  out  of  the  Douglas 
debates,  which  not  only  left  him  known  through 
out  the  country  at  once,  but  contained  such  a 
complete  and  able  statement  of  Republican  doc 
trine  that  the  more  they  were  read  by  the  lead 
ers  the  more  highly  was  Lincoln  regarded.  As 
Elaine  has  said,  Lincoln  "  did  not  seek  to  say 
merely  the  thing  that  was  for  the  day's  debate, 
but  the  thing  which  would  stand  the  test  of  time 
and  square  itself  with  eternal  justice."  He  was 
now  rapidly  reaping  his  reward. 

Of  this  Cooper  Institute  gathering  the  New 
York  Tribune,  Greeley's  paper,  said,  "  Since  the 
days  of  Clay  and  Webster  no  man  has  spoken  to 
a  larger  assemblage  of  the  intellect  and  mental 
culture  of  our  city."  The  speech  was  serious. 
It  contained  none  of  the  raciness  intended  for 
Western  stumps,  but  put  the  whole  question  in 
all  its  branches  in  the  soliclest  form  to  confirm  or 
convince  the  minds  of  educated  men  whose  in-  / , 
terest  was  keenly  centred.  Lincoln  was  always  j/ 
a  man  who  understood  opportunity.  Stories  and 
jests  were  laid  aside,  and  he  grasped  the  occasion 
to  paint  the  situation  more  accurately  than  any 
body  else.  In  spite  of  its  thoroughness,  its  treat 
ment  of  all  sides  of  the  central  controversy,  it  had 


150 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


such  unity  that  one  idea  dominated  the  whole: 
"  All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we 
thought  slavery  right;  all  we  ask  they  could  as 
readily  grant,  if  they  thought  it  wrong."  To 
support  duty  was  the  straight  road;  "then  let 
us  stand  by  our  duty,  fearlessly  and  effectively." 
"  Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  Greeley's  paper  the  next 
day,  "  is  one  of  nature's  orators."  The  Evening 
Post  and  most  of  the  other  leading  papers  were 
almost  equally  enthusiastic.  He  spoke  elsewhere 
in  the  East,  holding  fast  to  the  main  issue,  and  to 
the  principles  on  which  he  believed  it  should  be 
decided,  and  when  he  returned  to  the  West  he 
was  in  the  best  of  form  to  try  for  the  great  prize 
to  be  awarded  the  succeeding  year. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

NOMINATION    AND    ELECTION 

WITH  this  native  wisdom,  the  shrewdness  of 
a  trained  politician,  and  the  aid  of  the  men  in 
Illinois  most  adroit  in  such  manipulation,  Lin 
coln  went  to  work  to  secure  one  of  the  prizes, 
the  highest  if  possible.  In  America  a  presi 
dential  candidate  usually  gains  by  remaining  in 
the  background,  and  Lincoln  found  reason  to 
declare  himself  unworthy  of  the  chief  office  and 
unentitled  to  the  vice-presidency,  which  was 
sought  by  other  Illinois  statesmen  whom  he  did 
not  wish  to  antagonize.  All  the  time  he  was 
strengthening  himself  as  much  as  he  could, 
and  watching  events,  to  see  just  what  steps 
should  be  taken  as  opportunity  opened  before 
him.  He  wrote  letters,  mostly  short  ones,  to 
politicians  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  The 
party  leaders  in  the  East  had  their  own  can 
didates  for  the  presidency,  but  they  thought 
much  of  Lincoln  for  second  place,  which  would 
naturally  go  to  the  West.  Under  the  adroit 
management  of  the  Republican  State  Com 
mittee,  who  were  preparing  the  ground  all 
through  1859,  the  Illinois  papers  came  out  one 


152  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

at  a  time,  at  considerable  intervals,  for  Lincoln, 
as  if  by  a  natural  growth  of  public  opinion, 
culminating  February  16,  1860,  in  the  Chicago 
Tribime,  whose  editor  was  one  of  the  leading 
workers  of  this  scheme.  The  public  opinion 
really  existed,  but  it  was  gathered  together  and 
intensified  by  party  tactics.  Lincoln  himself 
wrote  to  a  Western  politician :  — 

"  As  to  your  kind  wishes  for  myself,  allow  me 
to  say  I  cannot  enter  the  ring  on  the  money 
basis  —  first,  because  in  the  main  it  is -wrong; 
and  secondly,  I  have  not  and  cannot  get  the 
money.  I  say  in  the  main  the  use  of  money  is 
wrong ;  but  for  certain  objects  in  a  political 
contest  the  use  of  same  is  both  right  and  in 
dispensable.  With  me,  as  with  yourself,  this 
long  struggle  has  been  one  of  great  pecuniary 
loss.  I  now  distinctly  say  this :  If  you  shall  be 
appointed  a  delegate  to  Chicago,  I  will  furnish 
one  hundred  dollars  to  bear  the  expenses  of 
the  trip."  Herndon  tells  a  number  of  stories 
about  Lincoln's  methods  of  conciliating  news 
paper  men,  which  shows  he  was  not  squeamish 
in  trifles. 

The  selection  of  Chicago  by  the  Republicans 
was  the  first  victory  for  the  Illinois  managers. 
Norman  B.  Judd,  who  led  in  the  effort  to  bring 
the  convention  to  Chicago,  also  saw  to  it  that 
reduced  railway  fares  were  initiated,  and  that 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  153 

there  were  other  inducements  to  lure  the  citi 
zens  of  Illinois  to  the  seat  of  war.  Lincoln  had 
taken  this  position,  expressed  in  a  letter  to  Judd : 
"  I  am  not  in  a  position  where  it  would  hurt 
much  for  me  not  to  be  nominated  on  the  national 
ticket;  but  I  am  where  it  would  hurt  some  for 
me  not  to  get  the  Illinois  delegates."  The  first 
point  was  to  fix  Illinois,  and  the  future  would 
show  what  could  be  done  when  the  various 
states  exchanged  their  views.  Mr.  Whitney, 
who  was  in  Chicago  for  several  days  in  March 
and  April  preceding  the.  nomination,  when  Lin 
coln  was  trying  the  sand-bar  case,  went  with 
him  to  a  minstrel  show  at  Metropolitan  Hall, 
Chicago,  where  it  was  then  thought  the  con 
vention  might  be  held. 

"  Possibly,"  said  Whitney,  "  in  a  few  weeks 
you  will  be  nominated  for  the  presidency  right 
here." 

"  It  is  enough  honor,"  said  Lincoln,  "  for  me 
to  be  talked  about  for  it." 

The  Republican  State  Convention  met  at 
Decatur,  May  9  and  10.  The  result  had  al 
ready  been  prepared,  but  it  was  to  be  called 
out  in  a  manner  that  struck  one  of  the  most 
effective  chords  in  the  succeeding  battle.  The 
"  wigwam  "  was  crowded,  and  Lincoln  was  seated 
on  his  heels  in  an  aisle  among  the  onlookers. 
Governor  Oglesby,  the  presiding  officer,  sug- 


154  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

gested  that  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Illinois 
who  was  present,  and  whom  his  fellow-citizens 
always  delighted  to  honor,  should  have  a  seat 
on  the  platform.  The  crowd  was  so  dense  that 
Lincoln  could  not  make  his  way,  and  he  was 
seized  and  lifted  over  the  spectators  to  the 
stand,  with  loud  applause.  Later,  Oglesby  mys 
teriously  hinted  that  an  old  Democrat  outside 
had  something  which  he  wished  to  present  to 
the  convention.  It  was  voted  that  this  some 
thing  should  be  received.  The  door  was  opened, 
to  admit  John  Hanks,  the  rustic  cousin  of  Lin 
coln,  who  had  been  chosen  and  coached  for  this 
particular  demonstration.  He  marched  into  the 
assembly,  bearing  two  small  triangular  rails  and 
a  banner,  on  which  were  these  words,  which 
were  associated  not  remotely  with  victory  in 
the  fall :  — 

"ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

THE  RAIL  CANDIDATE 
FOR  PRESIDENT  IN  1860 

Two  rails  from  a  lot  of  3000  made  in  1830  by  Thos.  Hanks 
and  Abe  Lincoln — whose  father  was  the  first  pioneer  of  Macon 
County." 

Lincoln,  after  the  immense  tumult  had  subsided, 
in  his  half  embarrassed  and  half  easy  way,  stood 
up  on  the  platform  and  responded :  "  I  suppose  I 
am  expected  to  reply  to  that.  I  cannot  say  whether 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  155 

I  made  those  rails  or  not,  but  I  am  quite  sure  I 
have  made  a  great  many  just  as  good." 

The  convention  resolved  that  Lincoln  was  its 
first  choice,  and  instructed  delegates  to  give  the 
vote  of  the  state  as  a  unit.  They  were  really 
almost  unanimous  by  this  time,  and  a  little  more 
work  by  the  leaders  made  them  so.  About  the 
National  Convention  Lincoln  said,  "  I  am  a  little 
too  much  of  a  candidate  to  go,  and  not  quite 
enough  of  a  candidate  to  stay  away;  but  upon 
the  whole  I  believe  I  will  not  go." 

When  the  Republicans  met  in  Chicago  just  a 
week  later,  May  16,  they  found  a  complicated 
situation.  It  was  their  second  national  conven 
tion.  Fremont,  who  was  nominated  by  them  at 
Philadelphia  in  1856,  had  been  defeated  by  the 
slave  states,  except  Maryland,  aided  by  Illinois, 
Indiana,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  California. 
Illinois  had  always  been  Democratic.  In  1836 
Ohio  and  Indiana  went  for  Harrison,  but  Illinois 
did  not  enter  the  Whig  ranks.  In  1840  Illinois 
was  the  only  free  state  except  New  Hampshire  to 
go  Democratic.  In  1844  she  increased  her  major 
ity.  "  She  never,"  says  Horace  Greeley,  "  cast  an 
electoral  vote  for  any  other  than  the  Democratic 
nominee  till  she  cast  all  she  had  for  her  own  Lin 
coln."  Now  it  was  Lincoln  who  had  shown  in 
the  Senatorial  fight  with  Douglas  that  Illinois 
might  be  rescued  for  the  Republicans.  The 


pWW^Cc^^  IVUtoy  /fe 

156  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

other  Northern  Democratic  states  might  also  be 
changed,  as  indicated  by  the  elections  of  1858. 
The  first  four  on  the  list  were  the  most  impor 
tant,  and  among  them  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jer 
sey  were  first,  because  they,  voting  in  October, 
would  have  an  immense  influence  on  the  others. 
The  leaders  were  to  decide  practically  on  these 
facts  alone. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  split  of  the  Democrats 
the  Republicans  would  have  had  less  confidence. 
After  a  long  fight  the  Democrats  had  adjourned, 
on  May  3,  their  convention  held  at  Charleston, 
fifty-seven  ballots  having  shown  that,  while  Doug 
las  was  far  in  the  lead,  he  was  bitterly  opposed  by 
the  extreme  slavery  element.  The  extent  of  the 
split  became  evident  only  after  the  Republicans 
had  made  their  choice,  but  it  was  clearly  evident 
that  the  Democrats  were  sufficiently  divided  to 
offer  a  good  opportunity.  On  May  6  a  peace 
party  calling  itself  the  Constitutional  Union 
Party,  having  an  avoidance  of  the  slavery  issue  as 
its  only  principle,  had  nominated  John  Bell  of 
Tennessee  and  Edward  Everett  of  Massachusetts, 
but  it  was  a  minor  element  in  the  problem. 

The  leading  candidate,  when  the  Republicans 
assembled  in  Chicago,  was  William  H.  Seward  of 
New  York.  What  the  Lincoln  men  most  feared 
was  a  Seward  victory  on  the  first  ballot.  That 
once  passed  they  felt  their  chances  good,  for 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  157 

Seward  was  too  offensive  to  various  elements  in 
the  party  to  be  the  centre  of  any  compromise. 
Although  the  address  in  which  he  spoke  of  an  "irre 
pressible  conflict "  between  slavery  and  freedom 
was  four  months  later  than  Lincoln's  "  house  di 
vided  against  itself,"  Seward,  partly  because  of  his 
greater  prominence,  partly  because  of  other  ex 
pressions  made  eight  years  earlier,  was  looked 
upon  as  much  more  of  an  abolitionist.  One  of 
his  delegates  sent  a  despatch  to  the  supporters  of 
Edward  Bates,  a  Missouri  candidate  representing 
moderation,  saying  that  Lincoln  was  as  radical 
as  Seward.  Lincoln,  although  he  was  trusting 
his  fortunes  in  the  hands  of  David  Davis,  Judd, 
and  a  few  others,  wrote  from  Springfield  to  Davis, 
when  he  saw  this  despatch  :  "  Lincoln  agrees  with 
Seward  in  his  irrepressible  conflict  idea,  and  in 
negro  equality;  but  he  is  opposed  to  Seward's 
Higher  Law.  Make  no  contracts  that  will  bind 
meT  The  last  sentence  was  underlined.  The 
Higher  Law  sentence  referred  to  the  contention 
of  Seward,  made  in  1850,  that  the  moral  law  stood 
above  the  Constitution ;  and  Lincoln  had  always 
made  it  clear  that,  with  all  his  hatred  of  slavery, 
his  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  was  first.  The 
belief,  therefore,  that  Seward  was  the  more  radi 
cal,  was  justly  founded,  for  he  had,  to  balance  an 
equal  hostility  to  slavery,  a  smaller  ballast  of  re 
spect  for  established  institutions.  Moreover,  he 


158  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

had  the  misfortune  to  have  gained  unpopularity  in 
the  two  states  on  which  all  eyes  were  fixed,  Penn 
sylvania  and  Indiana,  by  his  attitude  on  a  school 
question.  His  managers  were  able,  and  better 
known  than  those  of  his  principal  rival,  but  in 
this  affair  they  were  less  shrewd.  Thurlow  Weed, 
the  notorious  New  York  politician,  was  at  the 
head,  with  Governor  Morgan  and  Henry  Ray 
mond,  of  the  New  York  Times,  as  assistants,  and 
William  M.  Evarts  to  make  the  nomination. 
Colonel  McClure  divides  Lincoln's  managers  as 
follows:  David  Davis  for  counsel,  Leonard  Swett 
for  sagacity,  Norman  B.  Judd  for  tireless  hustling. 
They  had  filled  Chicago  with  a  multitude  of  Illi 
nois  men  wild  for  Lincoln,  and  while  the  Seward 
advocates  were  making  a  great  noise  and  display 
in  the  streets,  the  Lincoln  leaders,  far  ahead  of 
the  time  for  balloting,  packed  the  whole  wigwam, 
the  great  temporary  building  in  which  the  con 
vention  was  finally  held,  so  full  of  their  supporters 
that  when  the  Seward  celebrators  got  there  they 
found  room  for  few  more  than  their  delegates  and 
lost  the  advantages  of  the  enthusiastic  cheering 
of  a  multitude.  If  Seward  was  outgeneralled, 
however,  the  more  important  fact  is  that  he  had 
aroused  more  hostility  and  that  he  did  not  come 
from  a  doubtful  state. 

Lincoln's  friends,  not  overawed  by  the  under 
scored  passage  forbidding  bargains,  made  wise 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION 


159 


ones.  To  gain  the  support  of  Indiana,  it  was 
agreed  that  if  Lincoln  should  be  elected,  William 
P.  Dole,  a  clever  politician  of  that  state,  should 
be  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  and  Caleb  B. 
Smith,  of  the  same  state,  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury.  The  Indiana  delegation  was  thus  prepared 
to  tell  the  wavering  delegates  that  only  Lincoln 
could  carry  their  state  and  Illinois,  and  this  work 
was  industriously  executed. 

Pennsylvania  had  a  "favorite  son"  in  Simon 
Cameron.  Of  this  notoriously  corrupt  individual 
Lincoln  had  written  to  Judd,  December  9,  1859, 
perhaps  in  response  to  a  suggestion  that  Cam 
eron  and  Lincoln  might  be  the  ticket:  "If  the 
Republicans  of  the  great  state  of  Pennsylvania 
shall  present  Mr.  Cameron  as  their  candidate  for 
the  presidency,  such  an  indorsement  of  his  fit 
ness  for  the  place  could  scarcely  be  deemed  in 
sufficient."  The  Pennsylvania  politicians  had 
nothing  against  Lincoln  and  little  hope  of  nomi 
nating  Cameron,  so  all  they  wished  was  a  fair 
price.  With  the  two  October  states  in  line  the 
outlook  would  be  cheerful.  According  to  the 
best  authority  there  is  on  this  subject,  the  Penn 
sylvania  delegation  was  secured  in  the  small 
hours  of  the  day  on  which  the  balloting  was 
held.  The  negotiations  were  carried  on  by  sev 
eral  political  friends  of  Cameron,  on  the  one  side, 
and  by  Davis,  Swett,  Logan,  Judd,  and  Dole  on 


160  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  other,  Indiana  and  Illinois  being  already  con 
solidated.  The  agreement  as  finally  reached  was 
this:  — 

1.  These  negotiations  shall  be  forever  secret 
and  confidential. 

2.  Lincoln's  friends  have  no  actual  authority 
—  none  but  a  moral  right. 

3.  If  Lincoln  shall  be  President,  Cameron  shall 
have  a  place  in  his  cabinet. 

4.  And  he  shall  procure  the  indorsement  of 
the  Republican  State  Committee. 

The  second  clause  made  trouble,  especially  as 
Lincoln's  message  was  known,  but  this  difficulty 
finally  succumbed  to  the  argument  that  he  could 
hardly  go  back  on  Davis,  Logan,  and  Swett. 

There  was  further  stumbling  over  the  choice 
of  the  cabinet  position.  Cameron  thought  it 
would  be  particularly  satisfactory  to  get  his  teeth 
into  the  treasury  department,  but  as  the  Illinois 
men,  remembering  the  wrecking  of  the  treasury 
under  Buchanan  and  the  record  of  Cameron, 
were  obstinate  against  that,  the  exact  place  was 
left  undecided. 

The  real  work  having  been  done,  the  balloting 
began.  In  the  presence  of  possibly  ten  thousand 
people  William  M.  Evarts  said,  "  I  take  the  lib 
erty  to  name  as  a  candidate  to  be  nominated  by 
this  convention  for  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States,  William  H.  Seward." 


NOMINATION   AND    ELECTION  161 

Norman  B.  Judd  arose  and  said,  "  I  desire, 
on  behalf  of  the  delegation  from  Illinois,  to 
put  in  nomination  as  a  candidate  for  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
of  Illinois." 

Others  were  nominated,  but  the  applause 
showed  that  these  were  the  only  real  candidates. 

The  first  ballot  stood :  — 

Whole  number       ......     465 

Necessary  for  choice 233 

William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York,  .         .     173^ 

Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  .  .  .102 
Simon  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania,  .  .  .  50^ 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  ....  49 
Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri,  ....  48 
William  L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey,  .  .  14 
John  McLean,  of  Ohio,  .  .  .  .12 

Jacob  Collamer,  of  Vermont,  .         .         .10 

Scattering      .......         6 

On  the  second  ballot  most  of  Cameron's  votes 
went  to  Lincoln,  and  there  were  smaller  driftings 
toward  him.  The  result  was  :  — 

Seward 184! 

Lincoln          .         .         .         .         .         .         .181 

Cameron        .......  2 

Chase    ........  42^- 

Bates 35 

Dayton          .......  10 

McLean 8 

Scattering      .......  2 


162  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  third  ballot  saw  Lincoln's  gain  coming 
from  all  directions.     It  stood :  — 


Seward 

180 

Lincoln 

•     234 

Chase    . 

24! 

Bates     . 

22 

Dayton 

I 

McLean 

5 

Scattering 

i 

Before  it  was  announced,  votes  were  changed 
until  Lincoln's  total  was  354.  The  nomination 
was  then  made  unanimous.  Hannibal  Hamlin, 
of  Maine,  was  the  nominee  for  Vice-President. 
When  Douglas  heard  the  news  of  Lincoln's 
nomination  he  said  to  a  group  of  Republican 
senators  that  they  had  nominated  a  very  honest 
and  a  very  able  man.  After  discussing  the  vari 
ous  theories  of  what  really  led  to  this  nomina 
tion,  Horace  Greeley  says  that  Lincoln  was 
nominated  in  1860  because  he  could  obtain 
more  electoral  votes  than  anybody  else,  —  the 
same  reason  that  nominated  Harrison  in  1839, 
Polk  in  1844,  Taylor  in  1848,  Pierce  in  1852, 
and  Buchanan  in  1856. 

Lincoln,  who  heard  the  returns  in  Springfield, 
passed  in  his  usual  manner  from  cheerfulness  to 
gloom  and  back  again,  but  from  this  time  to  the 
end  of  his  life  heavy  responsibility  added  one 
more  weight  to  his  spirits  and  probably  some- 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  163 

what  increased  his  habitual  melancholy.  He  was 
sensitive,  too,  and  the  campaign  soon  furnished 
him  with  personal  abuse  more  bitter  than  any  he 
had  yet  endured.  The  first  important  news,  how 
ever,  which  he  received  after  his  nomination  was 
encouraging.  The  Democrats  met  again  in  con 
vention  on  June  18,  and  made  the  division  in  their 
ranks  more  nearly  hopeless  than  ever.  Douglas 
was  nominated,  and  on  June  28,  at  Baltimore 
also,  the  Southern  wing  of  the  Democracy  met  in 
convention  and  nominated  John  C.  Breckenridge 
of  Kentucky.  The  Republicans,  already  ardent 
with  the  inspiration  of  clear  conviction,  were 
spurred  to  greater  efforts  by  the  confidence  of 
victory  given  by  the  disturbed  condition  of  their 
opponents.  The  famous  Wide-Awake  Clubs  be 
gan  the  system,  now  grown  tame  and  perfunctory, 
of  torch-light  processions,  and  they  marched  every 
night  all  over  the  North.  The  appeal  to  the 
average  voter  was  made  partly  on  the  origin  of 
the  candidate.  As  General  Harrison  had  been 
carried  to  victory  on  a  wave  of  enthusiasm  created 
not  only  by  his  military  record  but  by  his  log- 
cabin  origin,  the  rails,  which  had  done  such  flam 
boyant  work  at  Springfield,  continued  to  be  one 
of  the  favorite  symbols  of  the  campaign,  and 
Honest  Abe  and  the  Rail  Splitter  became  com 
mon  appellations. 

It   was   easier   to  make  the  idea   of    Lincoln 


1 64  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

appeal  to  the  public  than  to  recommend  it  to  the 
cultivated  leaders  of  the  East.  In  spite  of  his 
Douglas  debates,  his  Cooper  Union  speeches,  his 
term  in  Congress,  his  long  leadership  in  Illinois, 
beginning  by  the  time  he  was  thirty  years  old, 
his  reputation  was  not  sufficiently  national  and 
tested  to  satisfy  the  men  who  had  wanted  some 
candidate  with  the  prominence  of  Seward. 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  Lincoln's  minister  to 
England,  said,  after  the  President's  death :  "  I 
must  then  affirm,  without  hesitation,  that  in  the 
history  of  our  government,  down  to  this  hour,  no 
experiment  so  rash  has  ever  been  made  as  that  of 
elevating  to  the  head  of  affairs  a  man  with  so 
little  previous  preparation  for  his  task  as  Mr. 
Lincoln."  False  to  absurdity  as  this  affirmation 
is,  it  was  made  by  many  at  the  time.  "  When 
Lincoln  was  nominated,"  said  Emerson  in  1865, 
"  we  heard  the  result  coldly  and  sadly.  It  seemed 
too  rash,  on  a  purely  local  reputation,  to  build  so 
great  a  trust  in  such  anxious  times  ; "  but  Emerson 
is  wise  enough  to  see  that  the  result  was  not  dis 
connected  with  the  profound  good  opinion  of 
Lincoln  which  was  held  by  the  people  of  Illinois 
and  the  neighboring  states.  Wendell  Phillips 
wished  to  know,  "  Who  is  this  huckster  in  poli 
tics  ?  Who  is  this  country  court  advocate  ? " 
This  was  the  same  man,  who,  fairly  representing 
the  extreme  and  cultivated  abolitionists,  pub- 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  165 

lished  an  article  called  "  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
Slave-Hound  of  Illinois,"  because  Lincoln  had 
not  been  in  favor  of  wholly  abolishing  the  fugitive 
slave  laws. 

Most  violent  of  all  his  opponents,  naturally 
enough,  were  the  Southerners,  who  were  taught 
to  look  upon  him  as  the  incarnation  of  the  aboli 
tion  spirit.  After  the  election  they  were  fiercest, 
but  they  were  sufficiently  harsh  before.  Negro- 
lover  was  one  of  their  milder  epithets.  He  was 
described  as  a  "  nigger,"  and  some  of  the  papers 
said  his  father  was  an  imported  gorilla  from 
Mozambique.  The  campaign  picture  reproduced 
here  is  typical  of  many  portraits  which  helped  to 
furnish  the  idea  of  his  appearance  to  the  vot 
ing  masses.  Lincoln  read  the  papers  more  or 
less,  and,  especially  after  the  election  until  his 
inauguration,  the  Richmond  and  Charleston 
journals.  It  was  always  his  habit  to  know  the 
objections  to  what  he  was  doing,  and  all  through 
his  presidential  career  he  read  the  discontented 
papers,  like  the  New  York  Tribune  and  the  Cin 
cinnati  Commercial,  more  than  he  did  those 
which  agreed  with  his  own  policy. 

He  did  not  take  the  stump  during  the  cam 
paign,  as  Douglas  did,  undoubtedly  because  he 
believed  that  the  cause  was  so  likely  to  win  if  it 
was  not  tinkered  with  that  the  safest  course  was 
silence.  His  friend,  Swett,  is  quoted  as  saying: 


166  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  He  employed  tactics  wholly  different  from  any 
other  politician  we  ever  had.  He  believed  in  the 
results  to  which  certain  great  causes  tend,  and 
did  not  believe  those  results  could  be  hastened, 
changed,  or  impeded  by  personal  interference. 
Hence  he  was  no  political  manipulator."  This 
statement  is  inaccurate,  but  it  is  true  that  there 
were  times  when  he  thought  interference  would 
be  dangerous,  and  this  was  one  of  them.  Swett 
also  says  that  after  Lincoln  was  nominated,  and 
on  account  of  the  signs  of  lukewarmness  in  the 
East  friends  proposed  sending  delegates  there  to 
induce  union  and  partisan  activity,  he  alone 
opposed  it.  Late  in  the  summer  he  consented 
that  Judge  Davis  should  go,  purely  on  his  own 
behalf,  on  a  tour  of  inspection,  but  even  this  con 
sent  was  reluctant. 

He  stayed  quietly  in  Springfield  and  watched 
the  signs.  He  gave  up  his  law  practice,  although 
not  his  partnership  with  Herndon,  and  spent  his 
time  in  the  Governor's  room  in  the  State  House, 
which  was  set  aside  for  his  use.  There  he  talked 
with  everybody,  important  visitors  and  intruders 
alike,  but  consulted  almost  nobody.  Judge  Davis, 
who  was  supposed  to  have  influence  with  him, 
said  that  Lincoln  never  asked  his  advice  on  any 
subject,  except  occasionally  on  money.  Swett 
says  that  in  his  eleven  years  with  him  at  the  bar 
the  only  time  he  knew  him  to  come  anywhere 


A  NEWSPAPER  CUT  OF  LINCOLN  MADE  IN  1860  FROM  AN  EARLIER 
PORTRAIT  BY  THE  SAME  ARTIST,  THE  LATE  THOS.  HICKS,  N.  A. 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  167 

near  asking  advice  about  anything  was  when  he 
read  to  a  few  friends  the  questions  he  proposed 
to  put  in  the  Senatorial  contest  and  asked  them  to 
answer  from  the  point  of  view  of  Douglas.  He 
heard  everybody,  asked  questions,  told  stories, 
and  kept  his  own  counsel.  No  more  did  he  an 
swer  any  of  the  accusations  made  against  him. 
He  was  again  charged  with  Know-Nothingism, 
purely  for  campaign  purposes,  but  he  refused  to 
reply.  Of  course  nothing  could  be  farther  than 
that  party's  principles  from  all  Lincoln's  convic 
tions.  He  was,  indeed,  so  much  in  favor  of  ex 
tending  rather  than  restricting  the  suffrage  that 
Herndon  tells  of  Lincoln's  refusing  to  argue  a 
law  case  because  it  involved  the  restrictive  view 
of  that  question. 

As  the  campaign  progressed  the  chances  all 
pointed  to  Lincoln's  election,  and  the  only  danger 
was  that  by  a  fusion  of  the  two  Democratic 
parties  in  some  states  the  election  might  be 
thrown  into  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
fall  state  election  increased  Republican  confidence. 
When  the  election  was  held  November  6,  1860, 
the  result  was  as  follows  :  — 


i68 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


POPULAR  VOTE 

ELECTORAL  VOTE 

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STATES 

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3 
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1 

Maine 

62,811 

26,693 

6,368 

2,046 

8 

— 

— 

— 

New  Hampshire 

37,5I9 

25,881 

2,112 

441 

5 

— 

— 

— 

Vermont 

33,8o8 

6,849 

218 

1,969 

5 

— 

— 

— 

Massachusetts 

106,533 

34,372 

5,939 

22,231 

!3 

— 

— 

— 

Rhode  Island 

12,244 

7,  707  2 

— 

— 

4 

— 

— 

— 

Connecticut 

43,792 

15,522 

14,641 

3,291 

6 

— 

— 

— 

New  York 

362,646 

312,510* 

— 

— 

35 

— 

— 

— 

New  Jersey 

58,324 

62,801  2 

— 

— 

4 

3 

— 

— 

Pennsylvania 

268,030 

16,765 

178,7812 

12,776 

27 

— 

— 

— 

Delaware 

3,8i5 

1,023 

7,337 

3,864 

— 

— 

3 

— 

Maryland 

2,294 

5,966 

42,482 

41,760 

— 

— 

8 

— 

Virginia 

1,929 

16,290 

74,323 

74,68i 

— 

— 

— 

15 

North  Carolina 

— 

2,701 

48,539 

44,990 

— 

— 

10 

— 

South  Carolina1 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

8 

— 

Georgia 

— 

H,590 

51,889 

42,886 

— 

— 

10 

— 

Florida 

— 

367 

8,543 

5,437 

— 

— 

3 

— 

Alabama 

— 

13,651 

48,831 

27,875 

— 

— 

9 

— 

Mississippi 

— 

3,283 

40,797 

25,040 

— 

— 

7 

— 

Louisiana 

— 

7,625 

22,861 

20,204 

— 

— 

6 

— 

Texas 

— 

— 

47,548 

15,438  2 

— 

— 

4 

— 

Arkansas 

— 

5,227 

28,732 

20,094 

— 

— 

4 

— 

Missouri 

17,028 

58,801 

31,317 

58,372 

— 

9 

— 

— 

Tennessee 

_ 

",350 

64,709 

69,274 

— 

— 

— 

12 

Kentucky 

1,364 

25,651 

53,i43 

66,058 

— 

— 

— 

12 

Ohio 

231,610 

187,232 

",405 

12,194 

23 

— 

— 

— 

Michigan 

88,480 

65,057 

805 

405 

6 

— 

— 

— 

Indiana 

139,033 

"5,509 

12,295 

5,3°6 

13 

— 

— 

— 

Illinois 

172,161 

l6o,2I5 

2,404 

4,9I3 

n 

— 

— 

— 

Wisconsin 

86,  no 

65,021 

000 

OOO 

161 

5 

— 

— 

— 

Minnesota 

22,069 

11,920 

748 

62 

4 

— 

— 

— 

Iowa 

70,409 

55,"i 

1,048 

1,763 

4 

— 

— 

— 

California 

39,173 

38,516 

34,334 

6,817 

4 

— 

— 



Oregon 

5,27° 

3,95i 

5,006 

183 

3 

_ 

Totals 

1,866,452 

i,375,i57 

847,953 

590*631 

1  80 

12 

72 

39 

By  legislature. 


2  Fusion  electoral  tickets. 


NOMINATION   AND   ELECTION  169 

Shortly  after  the  election  Lincoln  had  a  vision^ 
which  was  thus  related  by  him  to  Noah  Brooks : 

"It  was  just  after  my  election  in  1860,  when  the 
news  had  been  coming  in  thick  and  fast  all  day,  and 
there  had  been  a  great  '  Hurrah  boys  ! '  so  that  I  was 
well  tired  out,  and  went  home  to  rest,  throwing  myself 
down  on  a  lounge  in  my  chamber.  Opposite  where  I 
lay  was  a  bureau,  with  a  swinging  glass  upon  it "  — 
(and  here  he  got  up  and  placed  furniture  to  illustrate 
the  position), —  "  and,  looking  in  that  glass,  I  saw  my 
self  reflected,  nearly  at  full  length  ;  but  my  face,  I 
noticed,  had  two  separate  and  distinct  images,  the  tip 
of  the  nose  of  one  being  about  three  inches  from  the 
tip  of  the  other.  I  was  a  little  bothered,  perhaps 
startled,  and  got  up  and  looked  in  the  glass,  but  the 
illusion  vanished.  On  lying  down  again  I  saw  it  a 
second  time  —  plainer,  if  possible,  than  before ;  and 
I  noticed  that  one  of  the  faces  was  a  little  paler,  say 
five  shades,  than  the  other.  I  got  up  and  the  thing 
melted  away,  and  I  went  off,  and,  in  the  excitement  of  the 
hour,  forgot  all  about  it  —  nearly,  but  not  quite,  for  the 
thing  would  once  in  a  while  come  up,  and  give  me  a 
little  pang,  as  though  something  uncomfortable  had 
happened.  Later  in  the  day,  I  told  my  wife  about  it, 
and  a  few  days  after  I  tried  the  experiment  again,  when 
(with  a  laugh),  sure  enough,  the  thing  came  again  ;  but 
I  never  succeeded  in  bringing  the  ghost  back  after  that, 
though  I  once  tried  very  industriously  to  show  it  to  my 
wife,  who  was  worried  about  it  somewhat.  She  thought 
it  was  '  a  sign '  that  I  was  to  be  elected  to  a  second  term 
of  office,  and  that  the  paleness  of  one  of  the  faces  was  an 
omen  that  I  should  not  see  life  through  the  last  term." 


170  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

We  shall  find  this  side  of  Lincoln's  strange 
character  reappearing  later,  but  it  may  now  be 
mentioned  that  among  his  favorite  lines  were  the 
following  from  Byron's  dream  :  — 

"  Sleep  hath  its  own  world, 
A  boundary  between  the  things  misnamed 
Death  and  existence  :  Sleep  hath  its  own  world 
And  a  wild  realm  of  wild  reality. 
And  dreams  in  their  development  hath  breath, 
And  tears  and  tortures,  and  the  touch  of  joy; 
They  leave  a  weight  upon  our  waking  thoughts, 
They  take  a  weight  from  off  our  waking  toils, 
They  do  divide  our  being." 


FACSIMILE  OF  A  MANUSCRIPT  WRITTEN  BY  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN  IN  DECEMBER,  1859,  GIVING  A  BRIEF 
ACCOUNT  OF  HIS  EARLY  LIFE. 


This  document  was  written  at  the  request  of  the  late  Mr.  Jesse  W. 
Fell,  with  a  view  to  its  incorporation  in  a  memoir  to  be  used  in  the 
political  campaign  of  1860. 


COPYRIGHT,  1872,  BY  JESSE  W,  FELL. 


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UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER  IX 

FACING    THE    STORM 

FROM  his  election  to  his  inauguration  Lin 
coln  was  compelled  to  watch  the  end  of  Bu 
chanan's  government  proceed  on  a  course  the 
opposite  of  the  one  he  deemed  wise.  His  elec 
tion  was  the  signal  for  a  secession  movement 
throughout  the  South.  Never  before  had  the 
territory  of  the  country  been  so  open  to  slavery; 
but  the  leaders  knew  that  an  election  which 
meant  no  further  yielding  struck  also  the  final 
doom  of  their  institution,  and  they  were  deter 
mined  to  found  a  slave  empire  while  they  could, 
peaceably  if  possible,  forcibly  if  necessary.  It 
was  the  only  time  in  the  history  of  the  Repub 
lic  that  a  President  had  been  chosen  by  one 
of  the  two  hostile  sections  alone.  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  had  divided  almost  the  entire  vote  of 
the  North,  Breckenridge  and  Bell  almost  the 
whole  of  the  South,  and  for  the  first  time  since 
the  nation  was  founded  the  President  had  re 
ceived  no  electoral  vote  from  a  slave  state.  In 
this  situation  the  secession  leaders  saw  that  the 
hour  had  come.  The  mass  of  the  slave-owners 

171 


172  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

were  not  ready  for  war,  probably  not  even  for 
secession,  as  shown  later  by  the  manner  in 
which  the  Southern  states  withdrew ;  but  a  few 
influential  men  were  able  to  make  the  conflict 
inevitable.  As  Elaine  explains,  slavery  as  an 
economic  institution  and  slavery  as  a  political 
force  were  distinct,  and  the  war  was  brought 
on  by  those  who  wished  to  use  the  question  as 
a  political  engine  for  the  consolidation  of  power. 
Lincoln  characteristically  remained  quiet  on 
all  subordinate  issues,  and,  having  as  yet  no 
power  to  act  on  the  main  question,  did  nothing 
to  inflame  it,  but  none  the  less  told  his  spokes 
men  where  he  stood.  Not  for  a  moment  did 
he  encourage  the  talk  about  peaceable  seces 
sion  which  was  so  widespread  throughout  the 
North.  Buchanan's  cabinet  was  partly  com 
posed  of  Southern  conspirators,  Washington 
was  full  of  them,  they  were  in  every  Northern 
city,  and  the  President,  although  loyal,  was  so 
weak  that  he  took  in  a  confused  and  frightened 
,  way  the  position  that  if  the  South  wished  to 
go  he  saw  no  way  to  prevent  it.  That  was  bad 
enough,  but  when  Lincoln  beheld  the  aboli 
tionists  themselves  arguing  for  the  right  of 
secession,  he  required  all  of  his  own  convic 
tions  to  maintain  the  stand  which  he  never 
lost.  Not  only  did  Greeley  argue  in  his  in 
fluential  paper  that  the  Southern  right  to 


FACING   THE   STORM  173 

secede  was  as  good  as  that  of  the  Colonists  in 
1776,  a  statement  put  in  more  exaggerated 
form  by  the  New  York  Herald  and  many  other 
papers,  both  Democratic  and  Republican,  but 
the  mass  of  the  Northern  people  seemed  as 
weak-kneed  as  their  leaders.  This  was  true 
not  only  in  the  Middle  States,  but  even  in 
New  England,  for  in  Boston  itself,  Wendell 
Phillips  needed  the  protection  of  the  police, 
and  so  sudden  was  the  change  in  sentiment 
that  George  William  Curtis  had  to  abandon  a 
lecture  in  Philadelphia,  for  fear  of  a  riot,  five 
weeks  after  that  city  had  given  Lincoln  an 
immense  majority.  To  vote  for  a  conviction 
was  one  thing;  to  fight  for  it  was  another. 

Lincoln,  living  quietly  in  his  Springfield 
home,  watched  the  sentiment  at  the  North, 
knowing  that  when  the  lapse  of  a  few  months 
called  him  to  action,  he  should  stand  for  the 
straight  course,  however  raging  the  storm.  A 
fortnight  after  the  election,  when  Springfield 
was  holding  a  jubilee,  he  spoke  a  few  simple 
words,  among  them  these :  "  I  rejoice  with  you 
in  the  success  which  has  thus  far  attended 
that  cause.  Yet  in  all  our  rejoicings,  let  us 
neither  express  nor  cherish  any  hard  feelings 
toward  any  citizen,  who  by  his  vote  has  dif 
fered  with  us.  Let  us  at  all  times  remember 
that  all  American  citizens  are  brothers  of  a 


174  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

common  country,  and  should  dwell  together  in 
the  bonds  of  fraternal  feeling."  But  kindness 
was  no  clearer  in  his  attitude  than  determina 
tion.  While  he  was  for  conciliation  he  was 
opposed  to  the  only  possible  compromise,  which 
was  concession  either  of  more  territory  for 
slavery  or  of  the  right  to  secede.  He  granted 
the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and 
nothing  more.  "  My  opinion,"  he  wrote  to 
Thurlow  Weed,  December  17,  1860,  "is,  that 
no  state  can  in  any  way  lawfully  get  out  of 
the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the  others ; 
and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  President  and 
other  government  functionaries  to  run  the 
machine  as  it  is."  To  W.  Kellogg,  representa 
tive  from  Illinois  on  December  n,  he  wrote: 
u  Entertain  no  proposition  for  a  compromise  in 
regard  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  The  tug 
has  got  to  come,  and  better  now  than  later." 
Two  days  later  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Washburne : 
"  Your  long  letter  received :  Prevent  as  far  as 
possible  any  of  our  friends  from  demoralizing 
themselves  and  their  cause  by  entertaining 
propositions  for  compromise  of  any  sort  on 
slavery  extension.  There  is  no  possible  com 
promise  upon  it  but  what  puts  us  under  again, 
and  all  our  work  to  do  over  again.  Whether 
it  be  a  Missouri  line  or  Eli  Thayer's  popular 
sovereignty,  it  is  all  the  same.  Let  either  be 


FACING   THE   STORM  175 

done,  and  immediately  filibustering  and  extend 
ing  slavery  recommences.  On  that  point  hold 
firm  as  a  chain  of  steel." 

This  stand  he  held  with  calmness  in  the  face 
of  those  who  clamored  for  aggressive  talk  and  of 
those  who  were  for  conciliation.  Some  even 
went  so  far  as  to  propose  that,  now  that  the 
principle  of  freedom  had  been  vindicated  at  the 
polls,  the  way  to  peace  should  be  prepared  by 
Lincoln's  retirement  and  the  choice  of  some  one 
more  acceptable  to  the  South.  To  the  wild  sug 
gestions  with  which  he  was  so  plentifully  supplied 
he  said  nothing.  "  In  this  country,"  says  Lowell, 
"  where  the  rough-and-ready  understanding  of  the 
people  is  sure  at  last  to  be  the  controlling  power, 
a  profound  common  sense  is  the  best  genius  for 
statesmanship."  It  was  part  of  Lincoln's  common 
sense,  when,  as  Emerson  puts  it,  "  the  new  pilot 
was  hurried  to  the  helm  in  a  tornado,"  to  say  as 
little  as  was  necessary,  and  to  speak  only  on  the 
points  which  were  at  once  crucial  and  certain. 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  so  soon  to  be  a  member  of  the 
cabinet,  wrote  on  January  9,  1861,  to  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  "  He  is  a  man  to  be  depended  on.  He 
may,  as  all  men  may,  make  mistakes ;  but  the 
cause  will  be  want  of  sufficient  information,  not 
of  soundness  of  judgment  or  of  devotedness  to 
principle."  This  confidence  was  not,  however, 
so  widespread  but  that  the  President-elect  needed 


1 76  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

his  power  of  thinking  calmly  in  the  midst  of 
timidity,  distrust,  and  considerable  hysteria. 
Against  his  will  he  invited  Thurlow  Weed  to 
Springfield,  to  talk  over  the  situation,  but  this 
was  for  party  harmony,  and  was  almost  an  only 
instance. 

While  the  South  was  rapidly  being  forced  into 
secession  by  her  leaders,  and  part  of  the  North 
believed  war  inevitable,  while  the  rest  thought  the 
idea  inconceivable,  nobody  will  ever  know  what 
Lincoln's  opinion  was.  The  signs  as  we  look 
back  on  them  seem  indubitable  enough.  South 
Carolina  sent  circulars  to  the  governors  of  other 
states  in  October  and  got  mainly  replies  un 
favorable  to  secession,  but  the  little  hotbed  of 
rebellion  framed  a  government  for  herself  in 
November,  modelled  on  our  national  form,  her 
United  States  senators  resigned,  and  Governor 
Pickens  appointed  a  cabinet.  Before  the  newly 
organized  government  sent  commissioners  to 
Washington,  however,  Buchanan's  cabinet,  thinned 
by  various  quarrels,  had  been  filled  with  stronger 
men,  and  the  President's  own  weakness  was  thus 
diminished.  Driven  by  Judge  Black,  Secretary 
of  State,  and  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Attorney-Gen 
eral,  he  gave  the  commissioners  such  a  response 
to  their  demand  for  recognition  as  the  represen 
tative  of  a  foreign  power  that  on  January  2,  a  few 
days  after  they  reached  Washington,  they  went 


FACING  THE   STORM  177 

home  in  disgust.  A  few  days  later  the  cabinet 
was  still  further  strengthened  by  the  appointment 
as  Secretary  of  the  Interior  of  John  A.  Dix,  who 
on  January  29  sent  the  telegram  ending  in  these 
words,  "  If  any  one  attempts  to  haul  down  the 
American  flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot." 

On  January  5,  the  senators  from  Georgia,  Ala 
bama,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Mississippi, 
and  Florida,  held  a  meeting  and  sent  out  state 
ments  to  the  leading  politicians  and  officials  in 
their  states  that  all  must  secede  in  time  for  a 
convention  at  Montgomery,  if  possible  not  later 
than  February  15,  certainly  before  the  Federal 
inauguration,  the  object  being  to  confront  Lincoln 
on  his  accession  with  a  confederacy  in  actual  ex 
istence.  In  some  states  the  resolution  of  seces 
sion  was  submitted  to  the  people,  and  in  some  it 
was  not ;  in  part  it  was  carried  easily  and  in  part 
by  a  close  vote ;  but  all  except  Arkansas  of  these 
seven  states  seceded,  making  with  South  Carolina 
the  original  group.  They  proceeded  with  such 
vigor  and  boldness  that  in  the  time  preceding 
Lincoln's  inauguration  they  took  possession  of 
every  fort,  arsenal,  dockyard,  mint,  custom-house, 
and  court-house  in  their  territory,  except  three, 
the  United  States  army  holding  Fort  Sumter, 
Fort  Pickens,  and  Key  West.  The  Southerners 
thus  took  from  the  government  in  time  of  peace 
all  the  arms,  ammunition,  and  supplies  needed  for 


178  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  first  months  of  war.  In  the  danger  threaten 
ing  the  forts  which  still  flew  the  American  flag, 
Lincoln  wrote  to  Washburne,  who  had  seen 
General  Scott:  "  Please  present  my  respects  to 
the  general,  and  tell  him,  confidentially,  I  shall 
be  obliged  to  him  to  be  as  well  prepared  as  he 
can  to  either  hold  or  retake  the  forts,  as  the  case 
may  require,  at  and  after  the  inauguration."  He 
also,  with  some  hesitation,  consented  to  publish 
a  letter  declaring  the  right  of  each  state  to  con 
trol  its  own  domestic  institutions  necessary  to  the 
balance  of  powers  on  which  the  endurance  of  the 
political  fabric  depended,  on  condition  that  six  of 
the  twelve  United  States  Senators  from  the  seced 
ing  states  should  sign  a  request  to  the  people  of 
their  states  to  suspend  all  action  for  dismember 
ment  of  the  Union,  at  least  until  some  act  in 
violation  of  their  rights  was  done  by  the  incom 
ing  administration.  Out  of  this  reluctant  pro 
posal  of  compromise  nothing  ever  came. 

On  February  4,  the  delegates  from  the  six 
seceding  states  met  at  Montgomery,  and  on  the 
9th,  Jefferson  Davis  was  elected  president.  Steps 
to  organize  an  army  and  navy  were  taken  im 
mediately,  and  the  leaders  were  liberal  in  state 
ments  that  any  Federal  interference  would  mean 
war.  There  was  some  talk  about  preventing  the 
official  count  of  the  electoral  vote,  but  a  prompt 
stand,  by  General  Scott,  removed  whatever  prob- 


FACING   THE   STORM  179 

ability  of  resistance  there  may  have  been,  and  Lin 
coln  and  Hamlin  were  officially  declared  elected. 
On  February  n,  Lincoln  left  Springfield  for 
Washington,  after  borrowing  money  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  his  early  months  at  the  White  House, 
which  he  repaid  out  of  his  salary  for  the  first 
quarter.  Before  leaving,  he  visited  his  step 
mother  and  the  grave  of  his  father,  for  which 
he  ordered  a  stone.  He  took  leave  of  his  law 
partner  with  the  request  that  the  old  sign  be 
allowed  to  remain,  as  in  four  years  they  would 
go  on  practising  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 
To  the  neighbors  who  gathered  in  the  station  at 
Springfield  to  see  him  off,  he  said :  — 

"  My  friends :  no  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can  ap 
preciate  my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this 
place,  and  the  kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  every 
thing.  Here  I  have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
have  passed  from  a  young  to  an  old  man.  Here  my 
children  have  been  born,  and  one  is  buried.  I  now 
leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may  return, 
with  a  task  before  me  greater  than  that  which  rested 
upon  Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that 
Divine  Being  who  ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  suc 
ceed.  With  that  assistance,  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in 
Him,  who  can  go  with  me,  and  remain  with  you,  and  be 
everywhere  for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope  that  all 
will  yet  be  well.  To  His  care  commending  you,  as  I 
hope  in  your  prayers  you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you 
an  affectionate  farewell." 


180  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  next  two  weeks  he  spent  in  visiting  part 
of  the  towns  on  his  route  to  which  he  had  been 
invited.  In  the  first  address  which  he  made,  at 
Indianapolis,  he  characteristically  reminded  the 
people  that  the  preservation  of  the  Union  was 
their  business  more  than  his.  The  same  day, 
addressing  the  legislature,  he  said  that,  in  the 
view  of  the  secessionists,  the  Union  was  not  a 
marriage,  but  a  sort  of  free  love  arrangement ; 
and  he  asked  some  brisk  questions  about  state 
rights,  especially  about  "  that  assumed  primary 
right  of  a  state  to  rule  all  which  is  less  than 
itself  and  ruin  all  which  is  larger  than  itself." 
At  Cincinnati  the  next  day  he  said  that  he 
deemed  it  his  duty  to  wait  for  the  last  moment 
for  a  development  of  the  national  difficulties  be 
fore  saying  what  his  course  would  be.  The 
little  addresses  are  all  solemn,  —  some  of  them 
kept  from  being  commonplace  by  a  pervading 
tone  of  the  responsibility  of  the  situation, — 
brief,  usually  without  a  touch  of  lightness.  On 
the  1 4th  he  assured  his  hearers  that  during  his 
administration  the  majority  should  control.  He 
spoke  of  the  crisis  as  artificial  and  needless, 
but  such  efforts  at  inspiring  confidences  seemed 
darkened  by  an  overhanging  gloom.  To  the 
Assembly  of  New  Jersey  he  said:  "The  man 
does  not  live  who  is  more  devoted  to  peace 
than  I  am,  none  who  would  do  more  to  pre- 


FACING  THE   STORM  l8l 

serve  it,  but  it  may  be  necessary  to  put  the  foot 
down  firmly."  In  Independence  Hall,  Philadel 
phia,  he  said  that  the  great  principle  or  idea 
which  had  kept  the  Union  together  so  long  was 
"  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the 
weights  should  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all 
men,  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal  chance. 
.  .  .  If  this  country  cannot  be  saved  without 
giving  up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to  say  I 
would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this  spot  than 
surrender  it."  Frequently  he  assured  his  hearers 
that  his  heart  was  right,  and  that  the  future  must 
decide  whether  his  head  was  equal  to  the  task. 
The  speeches  seem  to  have  been  rather  disap 
pointing  at  the  time,  as  the  people  longed  for 
less  cautious  declarations. 

Lincoln's  trip  was  cut  short  by  evidence  of  a 
plot  to  assassinate  him  in  Baltimore.  The  evi 
dence  does  not  amount  to  proof,  and  was  not 
taken  by  him  at  the  time  as  conclusive;  but  he 
accepted  the  position  of  those  friends  who  be 
lieved  it  was  strong  enough  to  warrant  a  secret 
and  sudden  trip  to  Washington  and  the  abandon 
ment  of  the  rest  of  the  intended  stops.  Lincoln 
and  his  advisers  weighed  the  probability  of  public 
ridicule  and  made  up  their  minds  to  brave  that 
rather  than  run  what  still  seems  to  have  been  a 
real  risk.  After  a  special  train  back  to  Philadel 
phia  from  Harrisburg  and  the  detention  of  the 


1 82  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Baltimore  sleeper  had  been  arranged  for,  and  the 
telegraph  officials  had  agreed  to  make  the  trans 
mission  of  information  about  his  movements  im 
possible,  Lincoln  left  Harrisburg,  escorted  only 
by  Ward  H.  Lamon,  was  taken  in  a  carriage 
across  Philadelphia  from  one  station  to  another, 
supervised  by  Pinkerton,  passed  through  Balti 
more  unrecognized,  and  reached  Washington  on 
the  morning  of  February  23. 

During  the  few  days  before  the  inauguration, 
he  was  largely  occupied  with  the  official  routine 
of  paying  and  receiving  visits,  and  the  most  im 
portant  things  he  did  were  taking  the  final  steps 
about  his  cabinet  and  putting  the  finishing 
touches  on  his  inaugural.  When  he  began  the 
preparation  of  this  document  in  Springfield  he 
told  Herndon  to  bring  him  Henry  Clay's  famous 
speech  of  1850,  Jackson's  proclamation  against 
nullification,  and  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne, 
which  last  he  deemed  the  grandest  piece  of  ora 
tory  in  American  literature.  In  a  room  over  the 
store  he  composed  most  of  his  inaugural.  From 
time  to  time  he  showed  it  to  friends  and  made 
various  changes,  mainly  in  the  direction  of  soft 
ness.  The  firm  tone  was  originally  his,  the  gen 
tleness  and  occasional  vagueness  he  introduced 
partly  on  advice.  The  day  after  his  arrival  in 
Washington  a  long  letter  from  Seward,  with  many 
slight  changes,  suggested  the  excision  of  a  declara- 


FACING   THE   STORM  183 

tion  that  the  property  of  the  government  would 
be  reclaimed  and  the  insertion  instead  of  some 
thing  more  ambiguous  and  forbearing.  A  similar 
change  was  suggested  and  made,  substituting  an 
intention  to  hold  the  forts  in  possession  of  the 
government  for  the  determination  to  recapture 
those  already  seized  by  the  Confederates.  He 
labored  to  the  end  over  this  paper,  with  regard 
both  to  substance  and  to  style,  making  all  the 
changes  in  the  direction  of  mildness,  one  which 
he  suggested  himself  being  a  declaration  of  readi 
ness  to  submit  to  the  people  the  question  of  re 
vising  the  Constitution.  Before  he  reached 
Washington  he  gave  in  a  comical  spirit  a  de 
scription  of  this  address,  which  he  feared  had  been 
hopelessly  mislaid :  "  Lamon,  I  guess  I  have  lost 
my  certificate  of  moral  character,  written  by  my 
self.  Bob  has  lost  my  gripsack,  containing  my 
inaugural  address.  I  want  you  to  help  me  find  it. 
I  feel  a  good  deal  as  the  old  member  of  the 
Methodist  Church  did  when  he  lost  his  wife  at 
the  camp-meeting,  and  went  up  to  an  old  elder  of 
the  church  and  asked  him  if  he  could  tell  him 
whereabouts  in  hell  his  wife  was.  In  fact  I  am  in 
a  worse  fix  than  my  Methodist  friend,  for  if  it 
were  nothing  but  a  wife  that  was  missing  mine 
would  be  sure  to  pop  up  serenely."  The  inaug 
ural  also  popped  up,  and  it  may  be  mentioned 
incidentally  that  practically  all  the  clergy  in 
Springfield  voted  against  Lincoln. 


1 84  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  cabinet  measures  also  taken  in  these  few 
days  in  Washington  were  of  course  only  the 
finishing  touches  to  a  series  of  negotiations  which 
had  begun  before  the  nomination  and  had  never 
ceased.  Lincoln's  idea  from  the  beginning  was 
to  make  his  cabinet  include  the  most  prominent 
leaders  in  his  own  party,  Republicans  who  had 
been  Democrats  as  well  as  those  who  had  been 
Whigs,  and  also  leading  citizens  of  the  South. 
William  H.  Seward  he  had  chosen  as  Secretary 
of  State,  although  after  deliberation  yet  almost  as 
a  matter  of  course,  as  his  strongest  rival  for  the 
presidency  and  a  recognized  leader  of  the  Repub 
licans.  A  conflict  among  the  Illinois  factions 
served  Lincoln  with  an  excuse  for  giving  no 
cabinet  position  to  his  own  state.  Judge  Davis 
says  that  Alexander  H.  Stephens  would  have 
been  offered  a  cabinet  office  but  for  the  fear  that 
Georgia  might  secede.  Guthrie  of  Kentucky,  one 
of  the  leaders  at  the  Charleston  convention,  was  of 
fered  the  Treasury  Department,  which  he  declined. 
Lincoln  considered  the  names  of  several  other 
men  from  the  border  statesjwith  pro-slavery  ante 
cedents,  and  he  commissioned  Thurlow  Weed  to 
offer  a  place  to  Gilmore  of  North  Carolina,  who 
declined  because  his  state  seemed  likely  to  secede. 
His  rivals  for  the  presidency,  Chase  and  Bates, 
the  latter  from  the  slave  state  of  Missouri,  were 
chosen  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  Attorney- 


FACING  THE   STORM  185 

General,  as  part  of  the  general  policy  of  consoli 
dating  the  strength  of  the  party.  Caleb  B.  Smith 
of  Indiana  was  named  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
in  pursuance  of  the  Chicago  bargain,  which  Lin 
coln  decided  to  carry  out  after  many  misgivings, 
leading  to  such  changes  of  attitude  as  he  seldom 
indulged  in.  Cameron  was  the  worst  nightmare 
that  confronted  the  President-elect  during  the 
whole  interregnum.  He  and  his  friends  went  to 
Springfield  to  exact  the  pound  of  flesh.  Pennsyl 
vania  politicians  opposed  to  Cameron,  as  well  as 
men  of  position  all  over  the  country,  pleaded  his 
total  unfitness.  Lincoln  was  so  troubled  that  he 
first  promised  Cameron  the  position,  then  with 
drew  it,  and  finally  granted  it.  Montgomery  Blair, 
of  Maryland,  who  with  his  brother  Frank  had  led 
the  Bates  forces  in  Chicago,  was  made  Postmas 
ter-General,  and  Gideon  Welles  of  Connecticut 
Secretary  of  the  Navy.  The  slate  finally  stood :- 

For  Secretary  of  State,  William  H.  Seward,  of 
New  York. 

For  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
of  Ohio. 

For  Secretary  of  War,  Simon  Cameron,  of 
Pennsylvania. 

For  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Gideon  Welles,  of 
Connecticut. 

For  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Caleb  B.  Smith, 
of  Indiana. 


1 86  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

For  Attorney-General,  Edward  Bates,  of  Mis 
souri. 

For  Postmaster-General,  Montgomery  Blair,  of 
Maryland. 

There  was  considerable  trouble  up  to  the  very 
day  of  inauguration,  especially  through  Seward 
and  his  partisans,  who  objected  to  the  eclectic 
nature  of  the  cabinet.  Lincoln  did  something  to 
quiet  their  outcries  when,  commenting  on  rumors 
that  Blair  was  to  be  dropped,  he  said:  "  No,  if  that 
slate  is  to  be  broken  again  it  will  be  at  the  top." 
Seward  withdrew  his  name  March  2.  Lincoln 
wrote  to  him  inauguration  day,  saying  to  a  friend 
that  he  "  could  not  afford  to  let  Seward  take  the 
first  trick,"  and  the  Secretary  of  State  withdrew 
his  declination  March  6  after  a  long  talk  with  the 
President.  A  Republican  described  Lincoln's 
cabinet  as  "  an  assortment  of  rivals  whom  he  had 
appointed  out  of  courtesy  (Seward,  Chase,  and 
Cameron),  one  stump  speaker  from  Indiana  (Caleb 
Smith),  and  two  representatives  of  the  Blair 
family,"  this  last  meaning  that  Frank  Blair  had 
procured  the  appointment  of  Bates. 

When  his  presidential  term  began,  Lincoln 
weighed  about  180  pounds.  He  had  few,  if 
any  gray  hairs;  marked  rings  under  his  hol 
low  eyes ;  a  sallow  face,  with  deep  lines,  worn 
and  full  of  care ;  ears  which  stood  at  right  angles 
to  his  head  ;  a  thick  and  hanging  lower  lip.  He 


FACING   THE    STORM  187 

was  slightly  pigeon-toed.  His  dress  was  almost  as 
careless,  his  tastes  as  simple,  as  ever.  Besides  his 
house  and  lot,  his  whole  fortune,  after  years  of 
successful  law  practice  and  politics,  consisted  of 
a  little  wild  land  in  Indiana,  entered  for  him 
under  warrants  received  for  his  services  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War.  His  habits  of  distracted 
walks  and  long  reveries  continued.  The  general 
close  opinion  of  him  was  that  he  was  "  at  once 
miserable  and  kind."  The  first  impression  he 
made  in  Washington  was  partly  of  confidence 
and  partly  of  distrust,  but  no  one  asserted  that 
he  was  great.  He  had  never  held  a  ministerial 
or  executive  office,  and  he  was  generally  deemed 
inexperienced.  He  himself  felt  now  despondent 
over  the  magnitude  of  his  task,  now  equal  to  it. 
He  had  no  reverence  for  great  men,  no  belief  in 
their  existence  as  a  race  apart,  and  he  despised 
the  biographies  which  painted  them  in  the  conven 
tional  way.  He  once  refused  to  read  a  life  of 
Burke  on  the  ground  that  books  about  famous 
men  could  just  as  well  be  written  in  blank,  names 
to  be  filled  in  as  they  were  needed.  Years  before, 
when  he  first  began  to  meet  well-known  states 
men  in  Illinois,  he  had  remarked  that  they  were 
much  like  ordinary  men.  Now  in  Washington 
he  was  about  to  face  his  advisers,  his  generals,  his 
enemies,  with  the  same  level  look  of  intelligence 

and  suavity. 

*  ^  L!£ 

OF    THK  ^ 

UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER   X 

BEGINNINGS    OF    WAR 

IN  spite  of  some  fears  the  inauguration  passed 
off  without  disturbance.  In  the  presence  of  an 
enormous  open-air  crowd,  Lincoln  took  the  oath, 
administered  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  and  deliv 
ered  his  first  inaugural  address  from  a  platform  on 
which  sat  James  Buchanan  and  Stephen  A.  Doug 
las.  One  of  the  most  picturesque  minor  incidents 
of  the  day  grew  out  of  the  presence  of  the  Little 
Giant.  He  who  had  done  so  much,  in  opposing 
Lincoln,  to  make  him,  had  been  among  the  first 
to  come  to  his  support  as  President,  and  now, 
when  he  saw  his  successful  rival  standing  before 
a  great  audience  of  the  people  who  had  elected 
him,  holding  his  new  silk  hat  awkwardly  and  not 
quite  knowing  what  to  do  with  it,  Senator  Doug 
las  quietly  relieved  him  of  the  incumbrance. 

Lincoln's  practised  voice  carried  the  words  of 
the  inaugural  to  the  multitude  before  him.  That 
document,  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  country,  sounded  a  note  of  gentle  firm 
ness  on  the  one  great  issue  to  which  it  was 
mostly  confined, —  Union  against  Secession.  It 
was  intended  to  breathe  at  once  confidence  to  the 

1 88 


BEGINNINGS    OF    WAR  189 

North  and  friendliness  to  the  South.  It  succeeded, 
especially  as  it  was  read  at  leisure,  in  stiffening 
the  courage  of  the  loyal  states ;  but  soft  words 
could  no  longer  affect  the  trend  toward  secession, 
and  what  the  Southern  people  saw  was  not  that 
the  President  wished  them  well,  but  that  he  re 
fused  them  their  most  important  demand.  "  I 
hold,"  he  said,  "  that,  in  contemplation  of  univer 
sal  law  and  of  the  Constitution,  the  union  of  these 
states  is  perpetual."  He  declared  that  no  state, 
upon  its  own  mere  motion,  could  lawfully  get  out 
of  the  Union,  and  that  acts  of  violence  against 
the  United  States  wrere  insurrectionary  or  revo 
lutionary.  One  of  his  most  definite  statements 
was :  "  To  the  extent  of  my  ability  I  shall  take 
care,  as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly  enjoins 
upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union  be  faithfully 
executed  in  all  the  states."  Although  he  gave 
the  greatest  amount  of  time  and  emphasis  to  the 
question  of  Union,  he  touched  upon  slavery,  sum 
ming  it  up  in  his  favorite  way  :  "  One  section  of 
our  country  believes  slavery  is  right,  and  ought 
to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is 
wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is 
the  only  substantial  dispute."  To  the  South 
erners,  he  said :  "  In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied 
fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the  mo 
mentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  government 
will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no  conflict, 


IQO  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You 
have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the 
government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn 
one  to  '  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it.' "  The 
famous  end  of  this  inaugural  shows  in  its  origin 
a  quality  which  was  one  of  Lincoln's  strongest, 
an  instinct  for  assimilating  and  impressing  the 
thoughts  of  others.  Mr.  Seward  made  two  sug 
gestions  for  an  ending,  thinking  that  argument 
ought  not,  as  in  the  President's  first  draft,  to  be 
the  final  word.  His  first  suggestion  was  long 
and  dull.  His  second  was  this:  "  I  close.  We 
are  not,  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or  enemies,  but 
fellow-countrymen  and  brethren.  Although  pas 
sion  has  strained  our  bonds  of  affection  too  hardly, 
they  must  not,  I  am  sure  they  will  not,  be  broken. 
The  mystic  chords  which,  proceeding  from  so 
many  battlefields  and  so  many  patriot  graves, 
pass  through  all  the  hearts  and  all  the  hearths 
in  this  broad  continent  of  ours  will  yet  again 
harmonize  in  their  ancient  music  when  breathed 
upon  by  the  guardian  angel  of  the  nation." 

Lincoln  took  the  central  hint  and  wrote  this : 
"  I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though 
passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break 
our  bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  chords  of 
memory,  stretching  from  every  battlefield  and 
patriot  grave,  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth- 


BEGINNINGS   OF  WAR  IQI 

stone,  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as 
surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our 
nature." 

On  the  morning  after  inauguration,  the  new 
President  received  the  news  that  Fort  Sumter 
must  be  reenforced  within  a  few  weeks  or  aban 
doned.  The  military  situation  which  he  saw 
before  him  was  discouraging.  The  South  was 
thoroughly  prepared  and  aggressive.  The  North 
ern  army  and  navy  were  small  and  scattered. 
General  Scott  was  old,  and  although  thoroughly 
determined,  did  not  inspire  the  greatest  confi 
dence.  The  day  before  the  inauguration  he 
proposed  in  a  private  letter  to  Seward  to  "  let 
the  wayward  sisters  go  in  peace."  Added  to  this, 
the  lack  of  unanimity  in  the  North  and  in  the 
government  had  to  be  reckoned  with  by  the  Pres 
ident.  Republican  leaders  distrusted  Lincoln, 
and  gave  him  little  support,  although  younger 
men  were  more  actively  favorable ;  and  the  Dem 
ocratic  Douglas,  in  spite  of  some  charlatanism  in 
the  Senate,  gave  sincere  help.  The  cabinet  was 
hardly  an  aggregation  to  quiet  the  nerves  of  the 
President.  Seward  wrote  to  C.  F.  Adams,  minis 
ter  to  England,  on  April  10:  "Only  an  imperial 
and  despotic  government  could  subjugate  thor 
oughly  disaffected  and  insurrectionary  members 
of  the  state.  This  Federal,  republican  country  of 


192  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

ours  is,  of  all  forms  of  government,  the  very  one 
which  is  the  most  unfitted  for  such  a  labor." 
Chase  thought  possible  dissolution  was  better 
than  a  conflict.  Welles  was  a  rather  watery 
character,  Smith  and  Bates  were  old,  Cameron 
and  Blair  were  ordinary  politicians.  The  Senate 
that  met  in  executive  session  on  the  day  of  inau 
guration  counted  twenty-nine  Republicans,  some 
disaffected,  thirty-two  Democrats,  one  American 
hostile  to  the  administration,  with  five  vacancies 
from  Southern  states  that  were  not  filled  during 
the  war.  It  was  only  the  later  retirement  of  sena 
tors  from  seceding  states  that  gave  the  adminis 
tration  a  majority  in  both  branches  of  Congress. 
More  important,  however,  than  soldiers  or  poli 
ticians,  were  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  what 
they  felt  it  was  Lincoln's  intention  to  learn  by 
experience.  "  Step  by  step  he  walked  before 
them,  slow  with  their  slowness,  quickening  his 
march  by  theirs."  He  felt  that  he  could  master 
all  the  rest,  however  big  in  name,  if  he  could 
only  keep  the  resources  of  the  Northern  people 
just  behind  him.  Wendell  Phillips  declared  in 
New  Bedford,  on  April  9,  that  the  Southern 
states  had  a  right  to  secede,  and  added,  "  You 
cannot  go  through  Massachusetts  and  recruit 
men  to  bombard  Charleston  or  New  Orleans." 
If  the  leading  abolition  orator  was  right,  then 
the  new  President  was  going  to  be  in  a  hopeless 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  193 

position  when  the  tocsin  sounded ;  but  it  was  the 
President  and  not  the  orator  who  understood  the 
people. 

General  Scott  after  full  deliberation  advocated 
the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter.  Lincoln  refused 
to  accept  his  decision,  for  reasons  which  he  him 
self  stated  in  his  message  to  Congress  on  the 
following  4th  of  July:  "  It  was  believed,  how 
ever,  that  to  so  abandon  that  position,  under  the 
circumstances,  would  be  utterly  ruinous  ;  that  the 
necessity  under  which  it  was  to  be  done  would 
not  be  fully  understood ;  that  by  many  it  would 
be  construed  as  a  part  of  a  voluntary  policy ;  that 
at  home  it  would  discourage  the  friends  of  the 
Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far  to 
insure  to  the  latter  a  recognition  abroad ;  that  in 
fact  it  would  be  our  national  destruction  consum 
mated.  This  could  not  be  allowed."  When  Lin 
coln  consulted  his  cabinet,  March  15,  he  found 
only  Blair  really  in  favor  of  provisioning  Fort 
Sumter,  all  the  rest  being  squarely  against  it, 
except  Chase,  who  said  he  would  oppose  it  if  it 
meant  war,  but  he  thought  it  need  not  mean  that. 
By  March  28,  Scott  had  advised  the  evacuation 
of  Fort  Pickens  as  well  as  of  Fort  Sumter.  Soon 
after  this  Seward  expressed  to  Judge  Campbell, 
who  was  helping  the  Confederate  commissioners 
in  Washington  in  their  persistent  .  attempt  to 
win  recognition  and  concession,  the  belief  that 


194  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Sumter  would  be  abandoned  within  five  days. 
By  this  time,  however,  Seward  and  Smith  stood 
alone  in  favor  of  evacuation,  the  rest  of  the 
cabinet  having  moved  toward  what  was  the 
President's  position  also,  although  he  kept  quiet 
about  it  in  order  to  make  preparations  as  ad 
vantageously  as  possible.  On  March  29,  after  a 
cabinet  meeting,  he  ordered  the  Secretary  of 
War  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  be  ready 
for  an  expedition  by  sea  not  later  than  April  6. 
An  order  for  the  reenforcement  of  Fort  Pickens 
had  been  sent  two  weeks  before. 

On  April  i,  Lincoln  received  from  his  Secre 
tary  of  State  a  paper  which  perhaps  gives  better 
than  any  other  document  on  record  an  idea  of  the 
sea  of  troubles  which  met  the  untried  President. 
Here  was  his  principal  adviser  not  only  suggest 
ing  the  virtual  abdication  of  the  President  and 
the  dictatorship  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  but 
coupling  this  arrogant  superiority  with  some  of 
the  most  insane  propositions  which  emerged  from 
any  brain  during  the  war.  In  this  insinuation 
that  he  should  be  the  head  of  affairs,  Seward  but 
acted  on  the  ideas  which  he  shared  with  such 
men  as  Adams,  Scott,  and  the  other  officials  who 
felt  that  the  raw  Westerner  must,  by  a  process  of 
natural  selection,  step  aside  for  the  experienced 
party  leader  and  polished  statesman.  This  mar 
vellous  document  was  as  follows  :  — 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  195 

SOME  THOUGHTS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENT'S  CONSIDERATION. 
April  i,  1861. 

"  FIRST.  We  are  at  the  end  of  a  month's  administra 
tion,  and  yet  without  a  policy,  either  domestic  or 
foreign. 

"  SECOND.  This,  however,  is  not  culpable,  and  it  has 
even  been  unavoidable.  The  presence  of  the  Senate, 
with  the  need  to  meet  applications  for  patronage,  have 
prevented  attention  to  other  and  more  grave  matters. 

"THIRD.  But  further  delay  to  adopt  and  prosecute 
our  policy  for  both  domestic  and  foreign  affairs  would 
not  only  bring  scandal  on  the  administration,  but  danger 
upon  the  country. 

"  FOURTH.  To  do  this  we  must  dismiss  the  applicant 
for  office.  But  how  ?  I  suggest  that  we  make  a  local 
appointment  forthwith  leaving  foreign  or  general  ones 
for  ulterior  and  occasional  action. 

"  FIFTH.  The  policy  at  home.  I  am  aware  that  my 
views  are  singular,  and  perhaps  not  sufficiently  ex 
plained.  My  system  is  built  upon  this  idea  as  a  ruling 
one,  namely,  that  we  must 

"  CHANGE  THE  QUESTION  BEFORE  THE  PUBLIC  FROM 
ONE  UPON  SLAVERY,  OR  ABOUT  SLAVERY,  FOR  A  QUES 
TION  UPON  UNION  OR  DISUNION. 

"  In  other  words,  from  what  would  be  regarded  as  a 
party  question,  to  one  of  Patriotism  or  Union. 

"  The  occupation  or  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter,  al 
though  not  in  fact  a  slavery  or  a  party  question,  is  so 
regarded.  Witness  the  temper  manifested  by  the  Re 
publicans  in  the  free  states  and  even  by  the  Union  men 
in  the  South. 


196  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  I  would,  therefore,  terminate  it  as  a  safe  means  for 
changing  the  issue.  I  deem  it  fortunate  that  the  last 
administration  created  the  necessity. 

"  For  the  rest  I  would  simultaneously  defend  and  re- 
enforce  all  the  forts  in  the  Gulf,  and  have  the  navy 
recalled  from  foreign  stations  to  be  prepared  for  a 
blockade.  Put  the  island  of  Key  West  under  martial 
law.  This  will  raise  distinctly  the  question  of  Union  or 
Disunion.  I  would  maintain  every  fort  and  possession 
in  the  South. 

FOR  FOREIGN  NATIONS. 

"  I  would  demand  explanations  from  Spain  and 
France,  categorically,  at  once. 

"  I  would  seek  explanations  from  Great  Britain  and 
Russia,  and  send  agents  into  Canada,  Mexico,  and  Cen 
tral  America,  to  rouse  a  vigorous  continental  spirit  of 
independence  on  this  continent  against  European  inter 
vention. 

"And,  if  satisfactory  explanations  are  not  received 
from  Spain  and  France, 

"  Would  convene  Congress  and  declare  war  against 
them. 

"  But  whatever  policy  we  adopt,  there  must  be  an 
energetic  prosecution  of  it. 

"  For  this  purpose  it  must  be  somebody's  business  to 
pursue  and  direct  it  incessantly. 

"  Either  the  President  must  do  it  himself,  and  be  all 
the  while  active  in  it,  or 

"  Devolve  it  on  some  member  of  his  cabinet.  Once 
adopted,  debates  on  it  must  end,  and  all  agree  and 
abide. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  197 

"  It  is  not  in  my  especial  province. 
"  But   I  neither  seek  to  evade  or  assume  responsi 
bility." 

With  a  combination  of  meekness  and  firmness 
of  which  history  probably  does  not  offer  another 
equally  striking  example  in  any  powerful  ruler, 
Lincoln  replied  on  the  same  day  in  one  of  his 
masterpieces.  To  Seward's  first  proposition  he 
said :  — 

"  At  the  beginning  of  that  month,  in  the  inaugural,  I 
said,  '  The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold, 
occupy,  aj^possess  the  property  and  places  belonging 
to  the  g^rernment,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  im 
posts  ! '  This  had  your  distinct  approval  at  the  time ; 
and,  taken  in  connection  with  the  order  I  immediately 
gave  General  Scott,  directing  him  to  employ  every 
means  in  his  power  to  strengthen  and  hold  the  forts, 
comprises  the  exact  domestic  policy  you  now  urge,  with 
the  single  exception  that  it  does  not  propose  to  abandon 
Fort  Sumter. 

"  Again,  I  do  not  perceive  how  the  ree'nf orcement  of 
Fort  Sumter  would  be  done  on  a  slavery  or  party  issue, 
while  that  of  Fort  Pickens  would  be  on  a  more  national 
and  patriotic  one. 

"  The  news  received  yesterday  in  regard  to  St.  Do 
mingo  certainly  brings  a  new  item  within  the  range  of 
our  foreign  policy  ;  but  up  to  that  time  we  have  been 
preparing  circulars  and  instructions  to  ministers  and  the 
like,  all  in  perfect  harmony,  without  even  a  suggestion 
that  we  had  no  foreign  policy." 


198  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

To  the  later  and  more  insulting  propositions, 
Lincoln  replied  merely,  after  repeating  Seward's 
language :  — 

"  I  remark  that  if  this  must  be  done,  I  must  do  it. 
When  a  general  line  of  policy  is  adopted,  I  apprehend 
there  is  no  danger  of  its  being  changed  without  good 
reason  or  continuing  to  be  a  subject  of  unnecessary  de 
bate  ;  still,  upon  points  arising  in  its  progress  I  wish, 
and  suppose  I  am  entitled  to  have,  the  advice  of  all  the 
cabinet." 

To  Seward's  credit,  it  should  be  admitted  that 
when  a  few  such  experiences  as  this  taught  him 
who  was  master,  he  nobly  obeyed.  When  Henry 
Clay  said,  "  Mr.  Seward  is  a  man  of  no  convic 
tions,"  he  certainly  wronged  an  erratic  but  gen 
erous  and  enthusiastic  nature.  The  very  ardor 
with  which  Seward  lent  himself  to  the  work  in 
hand,  guided  by  his  superior,  led  to  the  later 
attempt  to  assassinate  him  also.  He  and  his 
friends  had  been  disappointed  that  Lincoln  would 
not  give  them  a  Seward  cabinet ;  they  were  dis 
appointed  that  he  would  not  delegate  his  respon 
sibilities  ;  but,  while  some  of  them  sulked  on,  the 
Secretary  of  State  turned  in  for  work. 

A  cartoon  published  on  March  23  by  Vanity 
Fair,  called  "  Professor  Lincoln  in  his  Great 
Feat  of  Balancing,"  represents  a  feeling  that  was 
growing.  Although  there  was  more  stolidity 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  199 

than  the  retrospective  observer  might  expect, 
there  was  also  grumbling.  The  Confederates 
thought  Jefferson  Davis  ought  to  take  sharper 
measures,  and  public  opinion  was  now  less 
divided  in  the  South  than  it  was  in  the  North, 
where  any  estimate  of  the  respective  numbers 
really  favoring  aggressive  action,  concession,  and 
balancing  was  impossible.  The  pressure  of  pub 
lic  sentiment  at  the  South,  however,  combined 
with  action  by  the  administration,  was  soon  to 
bring  on  the  crisis  before  which  both  sides 
showed  some  hesitation.  The  expedition  for 
the  relief  of  Fort  Pickens  sailed  April  6,  that 
for  Sumter  April  9,  both  having  been  pre 
pared  with  the  greatest  possible  secrecy.  The 
Southern  spies  in  Washington  were  unable  to 
tell  the  Confederates  the  destination  of  the  ex 
pedition.  The  President's  first  bad  mistake  was 
made  in  these  preparations.  The  frigate  Pow- 
hatan  had  been  assigned  by  Secretary  Welles 
for  the  Sumter  expedition.  On  the  advice  of 
Seward,  Lincoln  signed  a  paper  ordering  it  to 
Fort  Pickens,  which  was  done  so  secretly  that 
when  the  conflict  was  discovered  at  the  last 
moment  it  was  too  late.  When  the  Presi 
dent's  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  ordered  away  from  the  Sumter  expedition 
a  ship  vitally  essential  to  it,  he  said  he  had 
confused  the  names  of  Pocahontas  and  Pow- 


2OO  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

hatan.  Seward  had  intended  just  what  had 
been  done,  and  he  now  tried  to  persuade  Lin 
coln  that  the  Powhatan  ought  to  go  to  Fort 
Pickens.  The  President,  however,  definitely 
ordered  Seward  to  telegraph  an  order  giving 
up  the  Powhatan  to  the  Sumter  expedition. 
This  despatch  was  received  at  the  Brooklyn 
navy-yard  a  few  hours  after  the  ship  had  sailed, 
and  was  sent  off  in  a  tug  which  overtook  the 
Powhatan.  The  commander,  however,  seeing 
it  signed  only  "  Seward "  sailed  on  under  the 
former  order  signed  by  Lincoln. 

On  April  1 1  the  Confederate  General  Beau- 
regard,  having  been  notified  by  President 
Lincoln  that  provisions  were  to  be  put  if  pos 
sible  into  Fort  Sumter,  sent  to  the  commander, 
Major  Anderson,  a  request  for  surrender.  An 
derson  refused,  and  said  incidentally  that  his 
provisions  would  last  but  a  few  days.  The  next 
day  the  Confederates  opened  fire,  and  after  a 
slight  defence  by  the  small  Federal  force,  the 
fort  became  so  injured  that  it  had  to  be  sur 
rendered  by  the  unprovisioned  garrison  on  the 
evening  of  the  i3th.  The  relief  expedition, 
meantime,  was  lying  outside  the  bar,  waiting 
for  the  Powhatan,  as  nothing  was  known  about 
the  change  of  plan.  Thus  the  strongest  for 
tress  on  the  South  Atlantic  coast  was  lost  to 
the  Union  through  one  of  the  few  blunders 


BEGINNINGS    OF    WAR  2OI 

universally  admitted  as  having  been  made  by 
the  President.  Of  course  Seward  and  others 
shared  the  error,  and  it  is  remarkable  enough 
that,  furnished  so  liberally  with  bad  advice, 
Lincoln's  course  should  have  been  so  clear  that 
this  is  one  of  few  examples  of  undoubted  errors 
in  judgment. 

The  capture  of  Sumter  began  actual  war,  and 
filled  both  divisions  of  the  country  with  excite 
ment  and  determination.  North  and  South 
alike  were  consolidated  by  actual  combat,  the 
minority  growing  smaller  and  quieter,  so  that 
only  the  voice  of  the  secessionists  was  heard 
in  their  states  and  the  voice  of  loyalty  through 
out  most  of  the  North.  Most  of  the  hesitating 
Southern  states  seceded  rapidly,  and  the  blaze 
of  fury  that  passed  over  the  North  made  it 
seem  a  different  country  from  the  one  in  which 
but  a  few  weeks  before  even  New  York  had 
seemed  in  danger  of  secession.  Lincoln  knew 
his  people.  Had  he  not  been  content  to  wait 
for  Southern  aggression,  at  whatever  military 
cost,  the  people  would  not  have  stood  so 
stanchly.  He  had  to  deal  with  a  peaceable 
populace,  of  industrial  habits,  while  the  South 
erners  had  the  warlike  spirit  of  a  sporting 
aristocracy.  The  regular  Federal  army  was 
much  less  than  20,000  men  badly  scattered, 
and  there  was  not  enough  of  a  navy  to  make 


202  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

one  large  squadron.  The  revenues  were  not 
yielding  over  $30,000,000  a  year,  and  Secretary 
Chase's  hesitation  about  risking  war  by  reliev 
ing  Sumter  was  largely  caused  by  the  poor 
credit  of  the  government,  which  had  been 
forced  to  pay  one  per  cent  a  month  before 
the  end  of  Buchanan's  administration.  The  re 
sources  of  the  North,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
vastly  beyond  those  of  the  South,  and  Lin 
coln,  with  the  eye  of  a  statesman,  never  lost 
sight  of  the  fact  that  what  he  needed  was  the 
tactful  patience  to  keep  his  course  so  conserva 
tive  that  any  deep  division  would  be  avoided. 
The  military  problem  was  second  to  the  politi 
cal  one.  It  was  by  a  slowness  which  required 
fortitude  in  the  face  of  criticism  that  he  had 
held  the  Northern  Democrats  and  forced  Doug 
las  to  drop  hostile  comment  on  the  adminis 
tration  for  enthusiastic  defence  of  his  country. 
"  They,"  Lincoln  had  already  said,  referring  to 
the  Democrats,  "are  just  where  we  Whigs  were 
in  1848  about  the  Mexican  War.  We  had 
to  take  the  Locofoco  preamble  when  Taylor 
wanted  help,  or  else  vote  against  helping  Tay 
lor,  and  the  Democrats  must  vote  to  hold  the 
Union  now,  without  bothering  whether  we  or 
the  Southern  men  got  things  where  they  are. 
And  we  must  make  it  easy  for  them  to  do  this, 
for  we  cannot  live  through  the  case  without 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  203 

them."  He  then  told  about  the  Illinois  man 
who  was  chased  by  a  fierce  bull  in  a  pasture, 
and,  dodging  around  a  tree,  caught  the  tail  of 
the  pursuing  beast.  After  pawing  the  earth  for 
a  time  the  bull  broke  away  on  a  run,  blowing 
at  every  jump,  while  the  man  clinging  to  its 
tail  cried  on,  "  Darn  you,  who  commenced  this 
fuss  ? "  This  knowledge  of  plain,  essential  hu 
man  nature  had  led  the  President  to  wait  every 
possible  minute  for  the  other  side  to  begin  the 
fuss.  In  the  same  connection  in  which  he  had 
illustrated  by  the  bull  story  the  difficulties  of 
satisfying  all  the  critics  in  the  North,  he  had 
shown  by  another  tale  his  belief  in  the  impos 
sibility  of  any  real  alliance  between  secession 
and  Northern  Democrats.  Some  pious  mem 
ber  of  the  church  wished  to  build  a  bridge 
over  a  dangerous  river,  but  found  great  diffi 
culty  in  securing  an  engineer  competent  for 
the  work.  Brother  Jones  suggested  one  Myers 
who  announced  that  he  could  build  one  to  hell, 
if  necessary.  Jones,  to  quiet  his  friends,  and 
at  the  same  time  support  his  engineer,  re 
marked  that'  he  believed  Myers  so  honest  a 
man  and  so  able  an  architect  that  he  could 
accomplish  this  task  if  he  said  he  could ;  but 
that  he  himself  felt  bound  to  express  some 
doubt  about  the  abutment  on  the  infernal  side. 
Lincoln  explained  that,  in  hearing  any  talk  of 


204  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

accommodation  between  the  two  branches  of  the 
Democracy,  he  had  always  had  his  doubts  about 
the  abutment  on  the  other  side. 

Even  after  Sumter  was  fired  upon  his  step  was 
as  cautious  as  it  was  firm.  To  a  committee  from 
the  Virginia  convention,  which  waited  upon  him 
April  n,  while  the  news  of  the  firing  on  the 
fort  was  coming  in,  he  explained  again  that  in 
vasion  was  no  part  of  his  policy  at  present.  "  My 
policy  is  to  have  no  policy,"  he  often  said.  He 
was  ruling  a  Democracy,  and  he  could  learn 
nothing  from  the  history  of  other  lands.  But 
with  patience  went  decision,  and  to  this  same 
delegation  he  said :  "  If,  as  now  appears  to  be 
true,  in  pursuit  of  a  purpose  to  drive  the  United 
States  authority  from  these  places,  an  unprovoked 
assault  has  been  made  upon  Fort  Sumter,  I  shall 
hold  myself  at  liberty  to  repossess,  if  I  can,  like 
places  which  had  been  seized  before  the  govern 
ment  was  devolved  upon  me.  And  in  every 
event  I  shall,  to  the  extent  of  my  ability,  repel 
force  by  force.  In  case  it  proves  true  that  Fort 
Sumter  has  been  assaulted,  as  is  reported,  I  shall 
perhaps  cause  the  United  States  mails  to  be 
withdrawn  from  all  the  states  which  claim  to 
have  seceded,  believing  that  the  commencement 
of  actual  war  against  the  government  justifies 
and  possibly  demands  this." 

When    the    next    morning  brought   the    news 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  205 

of  Sumter's  fall,  he  made  his  first  test  of  North 
ern  feeling  by  a  proclamation,  drawn  by  him 
that  day  and  published  Monday,  in  the  papers 
that  gave  the  first  full  story  of  the  fight,  calling 
for  75,000  militia  to  serve  three  months.  No 
body  had  any  idea  how  many  troops  would  be 
needed  to  put  down  the  rebellion,  but  all  through 
the  war  Lincoln's  insistent  desire  to  accept  every 
regiment  that  offered  showed  not  only  his  will 
ingness  to  conciliate  the  particular  officers  and 
men,  as  part  of  public  sentiment,  but  his  feeling 
of  the  size  of  his  task.  To  an  adviser,  who,  in 
discussing  this  first  call  for  troops,  spoke  slight 
ingly  of  the  South,  the  President  replied :  "  We 
must  not  forget  that  the  people  of  the  seceded 
states,  like  those  of  the  loyal  ones,  are  Amer 
ican  citizens,  with  essentially  the  same  char 
acteristics  and  powers.  Exceptional  advantages 
on  one  side  are  counterbalanced  by  exceptional 
advantages  on  the  other.  We  must  make  up 
our  minds  that,  man  for  man,  the  soldier  from  the 
South  will  be  a  match  for  the  soldier  from  the 
North  and  vice  versa." 

To  all  who  had  doubted  the  fighting  spirit  of 
the  North,  the  response  to  Lincoln's  proclama 
tion  was  a  surprise.  The  free  states  answered 
with  enthusiasm.  The  governors  found  them 
selves  in  a  position  where  it  was  difficult  not  to 
give  more  troops  than  were  wanted.  Camps 


206  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

sprung  up  everywhere.  "  Ten  days  ago,"  came 
the  reply  from  Iowa,  "  we  had  two  parties  in  this 
state;  to-day  we  have  but  one,  and  that  one  is 
for  the  Constitution  and  Union  unconditionally." 
Ohio  offered  as  many  militia  as  the  government 
would  accept,  Indiana  replied  that  she  was  ready 
with  more  than  twice  her  quota.  One  day  after 
the  Governor's  call  forty  companies  had  been 
tendered  in  Illinois.  A  regiment  marched  fully 
equipped  from  Massachusetts  within  forty-eight 
hours.  Michigan  offered  50,000  men  if  they  were 
needed.  Factories  began  to  work  on  ammuni 
tion  at  once;  money,  credit,  and  the  use  of  rail 
roads  were  offered.  The  War  Department,  with 
all  its  wish  to  keep  down  the  number  of  troops, 
was  obliged  to  accept  nearly  16,000  more  than 
the  President  had  required. 

The  South  prepared  for  the  battle  with  no 
less  decision.  The  Secretary  of  War  asked  for 
32,000  more  troops.  Virginia  seceded  on  the 
1 7th  and  on  the  same  day  Jefferson  Davis  is 
sued  a  proclamation  inviting  privateers  to  prey 
on  United  States  commerce.  To  this  last  move 
President  Lincoln  replied  two  days  later  with  a 
blockade  of  the  Southern  ports  and  a  declaration 
that  privateers  would  be  treated  as  pirates.  The 
governors  of  Kentucky,  North  Carolina,  Arkan 
sas,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri  sent  sharp  refusals 
to  the  call  for  troops.  All  the  border  states,  in- 


BEGINNINGS   OF  WAR  207 

eluding  Maryland,  which  held  the  national  capi 
tal,  showed  a  division  of  feeling  which  proved 
them  one  of  the  most  important  stakes  to  play 
for  in  the  opening  moves  of  the  game.  Dela 
ware  alone  of  the  slave  states  sent  an  acceptance 
to  the  President's  call,  and  it  was  in  guarded  lan 
guage.  Some  of  the  best  officers  in  the  army  and 
navy  were  deserting,  and  doing  it  in  a  secret  way 
that  made  the  government  hardly  know  whom 
it  could  trust.  The  command  of  the  Virginia 
troops  was  offered  to  General  Scott,  who  replied : 
"  I  have  served  my  country  under  the  flag  of  the 
Union  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  as  long  as 
God  permits  me  to  live,  I  will  defend  that  flag 
with  my  sword,  even  if  my  own  native  state  as 
sails  it."  The  man,  however,  whom  General 
Scott  had  selected  as  the  ablest  officer  in  the 
Northern  army  to  take  command  of  the  forces 
in  the  field,  had  helped  Virginia  to  rebellion  by 
saying,  even  while  he  was  in  the  Federal  army, 
that  he  would  follow  her  right  or  wrong;  and 
April  23,  three  days  after  his  resignation,  Rob 
ert  E.  Lee  was  in  command  of  her  troops. 
Nearly  one-third  of  the  commissioned  officers 
resigned.  In  the  navy  treachery  destroyed  or 
delivered  to  the  South  several  of  the  most  effi 
cient  vessels,  among  them  the  famous  Merrimac. 
Singularly  enough  the  common  soldiers  and  sail 
ors  did  not  follow  their  officers.  Over  a  fifth  of 


208  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

the  muskets  and  over  a  fourth  of  the  rifles  in  the 
country  had  been  sent  to  the  South,  which  had 
also  been  buying  In  Europe  while  the  North  lay 
waiting. 

While  the  attitude  of  the  North  on  the  whole 
was  encouraging,  the  position  of  Washington,  in 
its  Southern  location,  was  disquieting.  On  April 
1 8  a  rumor  reached  the  city,  which  had  not  over 
2500  armed  troops,  that  a  large  Confederate  force 
was  on  the  way  to  attack  it,  and  the  immediate 
capture  of  the  capital  was  a  constant  Southern 
boast.  The  South  was  as  clamorous  for  aggres 
sive  action  as  the  North,  and  it  is  probable  that 
only  Lee's  advice  now  kept  the  Virginia  troops 
from  marching  against  Washington.  There  was 
but  one  railroad  running  north  from  the  city,  and 
within  a  day  or  two  Maryland  authorities  and 
mobs  had  destroyed,  many  bridges,  telegraph 
wires,  and  rails.  The  regiments  on  their  way  to 
the  defence  of  the  capital  from  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Rhode  Island  had 
not  arrived.  The  Sixth  Massachusetts,  attacked 
by  a  mob  in  Baltimore  on  the  iQth,  reached  Wash 
ington  demoralized,  bearing  the  wounded,  the 
dead  having  been  left  behind.  The  next  day  a 
delegation  of  Baltimore  men  came  to  the  Presi 
dent  at  the  White  House  to  ask  that  no  more 
troops  be  marched  through  their  city.  On  the 
advice  of  General  Scott,  Lincoln  made  this  con- 


BEGINNINGS   OF  WAR  209 

cession,  adding,  what  turned  out  to  be  true,  that 
they  would  come  back  the  next  day  demanding 
that  no  troops  march  around  the  city.  When 
committees  did  come  with  this  new  demand,  that 
soldiers  should  not  march  across  Maryland  against 
her  sister  states,  Lincoln  replied :  "  We  must 
have  troops ;  and  as  they  can  neither  crawl  under 
Maryland  nor  fly  over  it,  they  must  come  across 
it."  To  one  committee,  whose  spokesman  was  a 
clergyman,  he  said :  "  The  rebels  attack  Fort 
Sumter,  and  your  citizens  attack  troops  sent  to 
the  defence  of  the  government,  and  the  lives  and 
property  in  Washington,  and  yet  you  would  have 
me  break  my  oath  and  surrender  the  government 
without  a  blow.  There  is  no  Washington  in  that 
—  no  Jackson  in  that  —  there  is  no  manhood  or 
honor  in  that.  I  have  no  desire  to  invade  the 
South ;  but  I  must  have  troops  to  defend  this 
capital.  Geographically  it  lies  surrounded  by  the 
soil  of  Maryland ;  and  mathematically  the  neces 
sity  exists  that  they  should  come  over  her  terri 
tory.  Our  men  are  not  moles,  and  can't  dig  under 
the  earth;  they  are  not  birds,  and  can't  fly  through 
the  air.  There  is  no  way  but  to  march  across, 
and  that  they  must  do.  But  in  doing  this, 
there  is  no  need  of  collision.  Keep  your  row 
dies  in  Baltimore,  and  there  will  be  no  blood 
shed.  Go  home  and  tell  your  people  that  if 
they  will  not  attack  us,  we  will  not  attack  them ; 


210  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

but  if  they  do  attack  us,  we  will  return  it,  and 
that  severely." 

On  the  2ist  the  telegraph  to  the  North  was 
stopped  entirely  and  the  news  from  the  South 
was  all  about  expeditions  against  the  capital. 
Many  women  and  children  had  been  sent  out  of 
the  city.  The  President  himself  began  to  show 
signs  of  intense  nervousness.  As  the  troops 
failed  to  arrive  he  said  one  day  to  some  Massa 
chusetts  soldiers,  "  I  begin  to  believe  that  there  is 
no  North.  The  Seventh  Regiment  is  a  myth. 
Rhode  Island  is  another."  At  another  time,  be 
lieving  himself  alone,  pacing  the  floor  and  strain 
ing  his  eyes  in  the  direction  of  the  expected  aid, 
he  was  heard  to  cry,  "  Why  don't  they  come ! 
Why  don't  they  come!"  On  the  25th  the  Seventh 
New  York  finally  reached  the  alarmed  city  and 
was  rapturously  welcomed. 

One  little  incident  of  the  troubles  in  Washing 
ton  during  these  early  days  throws  light  on  the 
President's  method  of  dealing  with  men  and  grow 
ing  more  popular  the  more  widely  he  was  known. 
An  officer  who  had  broken  up  a  riot  in  the  capital 
woke  the  President  at  two  in  the  morning  to  con 
sult  him  about  it.  Lincoln  assured  him  that  as  he 
had  merely  done  his  duty  he  had  nothing  to  fear. 
The  intrusive  officer  replied  that  he  was  aware  of 
that  fact  but  just  wanted  to  talk  with  him  about 
the  matter.  The  President  told  him  to  go  to  bed 


BEGINNINGS    OF   WAR  211 

and  sleep,  and  added:  "  Let  me  give  you  this  piece 
of  advice.  Hereafter  when  you  have  occasion  to 
strike  a  man,  don't  hit  him  with  your  fist  Strike 
him  with  a  club,  a  crowbar,  or  with  something  that 
won't  kill  him."  In  such  flattering  humor  as  this 
lay  part  of  Lincoln's  uncommon  skill  as  a  politi 
cian. 

Not  only  did  Washington  feel  more  at  ease  as 
the  troops  began  to  pour  in,  but  her  immediate 
surroundings  became  quieter.  Both  the  legis 
lature  and  the  populace  in  Maryland  began  to 
subside.  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  with  a 
few  men,  without  orders,  daringly  and  suddenly 
took  possession  of  Baltimore,  and  held  it,  prob 
ably  without  losing  sleep  over  the  reprimand  he 
received  from  General  Scott.  Lincoln  gave  Scott 
power  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  when 
ever  it  was  necessary,  and  when  Chief  Justice 
Taney,  of  Dred  Scott  fame,  said  the  act  was 
illegal,  the  President  held  his  ground,  and  the 
verdict  of  history  has  been  in  his  favor. 

How  Lincoln  felt  about  the  general  situation 
at  this  time,  in  its  larger  aspects,  is  well  expressed 
in  one  of  his  remarks  recorded  in  Mr.  Hay's 
diary :  "  For  my  own  part,  I  consider  the  first 
necessity  that  is  upon  us,  is  of  proving  that  popu 
lar  government  is  not  an  absurdity.  We  must 
settle  this  question  now,  —  whether  in  a  free  gov 
ernment  the  minority  have  the  right  to  break  it 


212  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

up  whenever  they  choose.  If  we  fail,  it  will  go 
far  to  prove  the  incapability  of  the  people  to  gov 
ern  themselves.  There  may  be  one  consideration 
used  in  stay  of  such  final  judgment,  but  that  is 
not  for  us  to  use  in  advance.  That  is,  that  there 
exists  in  our  case  an  instance  of  a  vast  and  far- 
reaching  disturbing  element  which  the  history  of 
no  other  free  nation  will  probably  ever  present. 
That,  however,  is  not  for  us  to  say  at  present. 
Taking  the  government  as  we  found  it,  we  will 
see  if  the  majority  can  preserve  it."  Thus,  his 
central  ideas  remained  always  before  him.  Two 
years  before  he  had  said  to  Herndon  that  the 
advocates  of  state  sovereignty  reminded  him  of 
the  fellow  who  contended  that  the  proper  place 
for  the  big  kettle  was  inside  the  little  one.  For 
the  edification  of  the  same  friend  he  filled  a  sieve 
with  gravel  and  shook  it  until  only  the  biggest 
pebbles  were  left,  to  point  the  moral  that  up 
heavals  bring  the  best  men  to  the  front.  He  was 
now  well  launched  on  a  commotion  big  enough 
to  test  everybody.  Sometimes  his  heart  seemed 
to  quail,  and  he  even  said  he  wished  he  was  back 
in  Springfield,  but  more  often  his  sad  face  was 
calm  and  resolute,  as  if  he  felt  able  to  decide  each 
question  as  fate  put  it  before  him. 

Although  military  matters  held  the  foreground, 
the  President's  activity  was  of  many  kinds.  In 
response  to  mere  requests  for  autographs  he 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  213 

signed  his  name  twenty  or  thirty  times  a  day. 
His  correspondence  is  studded  with  notes  to  the 
cabinet  officers  asking  for  places  with  which  he 
wished  to  conciliate  various  politicians.  In  the 
campaign  of  1860  he  had  said  to  a  friend  :  "  They 
won't  give  up  the  offices.  Were  it  believed  that 
vacant  places  could  be  had  at  the  North  Pole, 
the  road  there  would  be  lined  with  dead  Vir 
ginians."  To  another  friend  he  said,  referring  to 
Daniel  Webster :  "  I  was  greatly  pleased  with  a 
speech  which  I  heard  him  deliver  in  which  he 
said,  '  Politicians  are  not  sunflowers;  they  don't 
.  .  .  turn  to  their  God  when  he  sets  the  same 
look  which  they  turned  when  he  rose."  When 
he  stood  on  the  verge  of  war  and  his  office  was 
besieged  with  office-seekers,  he  wished  he  could 
get  time  to  attend  to  the  Southern  question.  "  I 
am  like  a  man  so  busy  in  letting  rooms  at  one 
end  of  his  house  that  he  cannot  stop  to  put  out 
the  fire  that  is  burning  in  the  other."  He  is 
quoted  as  going  even  so  far  as  to  exclaim :  "  If 
our  American  Society  and  the  United  States 
government  are  demoralized  and  overthrown,  it 
will  come  from  the  voracious  desire  for  office, 
this  wriggle  to  live  without  toil,  work,  and  labor, 
from  which  I  am  not  free  myself." 

However,  although  he  doubtless  had  moods  in 
which  he  bitterly  resented  the  politicians,  he  had 
said,  more  than  once,  "  I  must  run  the  machine 


214  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

as  I  find  it,"  and  he  saw  that  war  in  the  United 
States  was  inevitably  in  large  part  a  game  of 
politics.  Seward  said  that  in  dealing  with  office- 
seekers,  Lincoln  showed  a  cunning  that  amounted 
to  genius.  In  his  relations  to  the  soldiers  his 
motives  were  more  mixed,  a  very  warm  and  soft 
heart  acting  in  conjunction,  doubtless,  with  a 
shrewd  knowledge  of  the  value  of  a  reputation 
for  sympathy  with  the  common  soldier.  When  a 
general  once  reproached  him  for  pardoning  every 
body  and  destroying  discipline,  a  complaint  often 
made  during  the  war,  saying:  "Why  do  you  in 
terfere?  Congress  has  taken  from  you  all  the 
responsibility,"  Lincoln  replied,  "  Yes,  Congress 
has  taken  the  responsibility  and  left  the  women 
to  howl  about  me."  He  used  to  say  it  was  a 
fortunate  thing  he  wasn't  born  a  woman.  One 
paper  which  he  sent  to  James  B.  Fry,  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  appointment  branch  of  the  adjutant 

general's  office,  had  on  it :  "  On  this  day  Mrs. 

called  upon  me.     She  is  the  wife  of  Major ,  of 

the  regular  army.  She  wants  her  husband  made 
a  brigadier  general.  She  is  a  saucy  little  woman, 
and  I  think  she  will  torment  me  until  I  have  to 
do  it.  A.  L."  And  she  did. 

While  his  kindness  and  his  sense  of  the  value  of 
personal  popularity  made  him  yielding,  his  readi 
ness  in  repartee  frequently  got  him  out  of  difficult 
situations.  Early  in  the  war  a  temperance  com- 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  21$ 

mittee  came  to  him  to  say  that  the  reason  we  did 
not  win  was  because  our  army  drank  so  much 
whiskey  as  to  bring  the  curse  of  the  Lord  upon  it. 
Lincoln  replied  that  this  was  rather  unfair  upon 
the  part  of  the  aforesaid  curse,  as  the  other  side 
drank  more  and  worse  whiskey  than  ours.  Some 
times,  but  very  seldom,  he  was  sharp-tongued 
with  some  obtrusive  caller,  but  never  in  any  way 
did  he  have  the  appearance  or  manner  of  superior 
ity.  He  did  what  his  petitioners  wanted  him  to,  or 
made  them  think  he  would  if  he  could,  or  dexter 
ously  turned  them  off  with  a  story,  or  convinced 
them  of  the  impossibility  by  strong  and  racy  logic. 
To  a  young  officer  reprimanded  for  a  quar 
rel  with  an  associate  he  said,  according  to  Nic- 
olay  and  Hay :  "  The  advice  of  a  father  to  his 
son,  '  Beware  of  entrance  to  a  quarrel,  but  being 
in,  bear  it  that  the  opposed  may  beware  of  theel' 
is  good,  but  not  the  best.  Quarrel  not  at  all. 
No  man,  resolved  to  make  the  most  of  him 
self,  can  spare  time  for  personal  contention. 
Still  less  can  he  afford  to  take  the  consequences, 
including  the  vitiation  of  his  temper  and  the  loss 
of  self-control.  Yield  larger  things  to  which  you 
show  no  more  than  equal  right ;  and  yield  lesser 
ones  though  clearly  your  own.  Better  give  your 
path  to  a  dog  than  be  bitten  by  him  in  contesting 
for  the  right.  Even  killing  the  dog  would  not 
cure  the  bite." 


2l6  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

To  a  delegation  of  ministers  full  of  advice  he 
said :  "  Gentlemen,  suppose  all  the  property  you 
possess  were  in  gold,  and  you  had  placed  it  in  the 
hands  of  Blondin  to  carry  across  the  Niagara 
River  on  a  rope.  With  slow,  cautious,  steady 
step  he  walks  the  rope,  bearing  your  all.  Would 
you  shake  the  cable,  and  keep  shouting  to  him, 
*  Blondin  !  stand  up  a  little  straighter  !  Blondin  ! 
stoop  a  little  more ;  go  a  little  faster ;  lean  more 
to  the  south !  Now  lean  a  little  more  to  the 
north  ! '  —  would  that  be  your  behavior  in  such 
an  emergency  ?  No ;  you  would  hold  your  breath, 
every  one  of  you,  as  well  as  your  tongues.  You 
would  keep  your  hands  off  until  he  was  safe  on 
the  other  side.  This  government,  gentlemen,  is 
carrying  an  immense  weight;  untold  treasures 
are  in  its  hands.  The  persons  managing  the 
ship  of  state  in  this  storm  are  doing  the  best  they 
can.  Don't  worry  them  with  needless  warnings 
and  complaints.  Keep  silence,  be  patient  and 
we  will  get  you  safe  across.  Good  day,  gentle 
men.  I  have  other  duties  pressing  upon  me  that 
must  be  attended  to." 

Adroitness  in  all  the  daily  routine  of  life  went 
hand  in  hand  with  shrewdness  in  what  are  usually 
deemed  the  higher  problems  of  statesmanship. 
Under  date  of  May  21,  is  a  despatch  to  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  minister  to  England,  written  by 
Secretary  Seward,  and  corrected  by  President 
Lincoln,  as  shown  by  the  following  facsimile  :  — 


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232  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

This  despatch  is  chiefly  famous  for  the  changes 
made  in  it  by  President  Lincoln.  It  conveyed 
the  first  full  instructions  sent  to  Adams  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion.  What  is  most  notice 
able  in  the  changes  are  the  added  accuracy  and 
caution  made  by  the  President.  Every  change  is 
either  to  avoid  asperity,  strengthen  a  position, 
or  give  more  exact  expression  to  a  principle. 
Instance  may  be  seen  in  his  change  of  "wrong 
ful  "  to  "  hurtful,"  to  describe  any  intercourse 
of  the  British  government  with  the  Confed 
erate  commissioners  ;  the  softening  of  "  no  one 
of  these  proceedings  will  be  borne "  by  substi 
tuting  "will  pass  unquestioned";  the  omission 
of  an  open  threat  of  war  if  Great  Britain  recog 
nized  the  Confederacy.  These  and  other  similar 
alterations,  made  at  a  critical  period,  so  early  in 
the  administration  that  the  President  was  practi 
cally  without  diplomatic  experience,  have  been 
steadily  admired  from  that  day  to  this  as  a  proof 
of  the  natural  diplomacy  of  shrewd  common 
sense.  By  this  time  it  had  become  tolerably 
clear  who  was  to  run  the  government.  Seward, 
who  so  short  time  ago  thought  he  ought  to  be 
dictator,  had  now  learned  enough  to  write,  with 
the  generosity  that  kept  pace  with  his  eccentric 
egotism,  "  there  is  but  one  vote  in  the  cabinet  and 
that  is  cast  by  the  President."  He  soon  after  wrote 
to  his  wife,  "  The  President  is  the  best  of  us  all." 


BEGINNINGS   OF   WAR  233 

Northern  impatience  made  it  impossible,  politi 
cally,  to  give  in  to  General  Scott's  desire  for  fur 
ther  preparation  and  methodical  and  broad  lines 
of  attack,  and  Lincoln  decided  that,  to  satisfy  the 
country,  an  advance  must  be  made,  even  if,  as  the 
General  in  Chief  anticipated,  any  victory  gained 
in  this  superficial  way  should  prove  indecisive. 
On  the  night  of  May  23,  the  heights  from  Ar 
lington  to  Alexandria,  where  the  President  had 
been  able  to  see,  from  the  White  House,  the 
Confederate  flag  flying,  were  occupied  by  the 
Federal  troops.  Again,  after  this  little  advance, 
he  allowed  his  generals  as  much  time  for  getting 
the  army  into  shape  as  the  popular  voice  per 
mitted.  Before  a  real  battle  came  Congress  had 
met.  Lincoln,  on  assuming  the  office,  had  put  the 
call  for  the  next  meeting  of  Congress  as  late  as 
July  4,  so  that  the  members  might  approach  their 
work  with  a  knowledge  of  what  the  spirit  of  the 
North  really  was,  and  also,  as  Elaine  and  others 
say,  doubtless  correctly,  because  the  President 
wished  every  possible  moment  for  the  canvass  of 
Kentucky.  An  observer,  Dr.  Furness,  seeing 
how  much  stress  Lincoln  put  on  the  border 
states,  once  remarked,  "  The  President  would  like 
to  have  God  on  his  side,  but  he  must  have  Ken 
tucky."  The  result  showed  him  justified.  Of 
the  ten  representatives  chosen,  nine  were  for  the 
Union,  an  outcome  which  did  much  to  influence 


234  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Virginia,  Missouri,  and  Maryland.  This  favor 
able  sign  was  needed.  New  states  had  seceded, 
so  that  the  number  was  now  eleven,  and  Congress 
itself  sat  in  a  fortified  city  fearing  assault.  The 
few  skirmishes  that  had  occurred  meant  nothing. 
The  first  pitched  battle  was  soon  to  come.  Mean 
time  all  was  excitement  and  preparation.  So  dis 
tinctly  were  the  lines  now  drawn  that  Andrew 
Johnson  was  the  only  Senator  who  appeared  from 
the  eleven  seceding  states. 

The  President's  message  spoke  even  more 
firmly  than  his  inaugural,  and  showed  such  fixed 
intentions  that  Congress  followed  its  requests 
almost  without  exception.  He  first  narrated 
what  had  thus  far  been  done,  again  showing 
how  the  South  had  forced  the  issue.  "  And 
this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of  these 
United  States.  It  presents  to  the  whole  family 
of  man  the  question  whether  a  constitutional 
republic  or  democracy  —  a  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  same  people  —  can  or  cannot 
retain  its  territorial  integrity  against  its  own 
domestic  foes."  He  spoke  with  satisfaction  of 
the  response  of  the  country  to  the  call  to  arms, 
described  the  present  sentiment  in  the  border 
states,  and  sharply  answered  the  doctrine  of 
"  armed  neutrality "  prevailing  in  those  states, 
which  included  the  intention  to  prevent  either 
side  from  sending  forces  across  them.  "  This," 


BEGINNINGS   OF  WAR  235 

said  the  President,  "  would  be  disunion  com 
pleted.  Figuratively  speaking,  it  would  be  the 
building  of  an  impassable  wall  along  the  line 
of  separation  —  and  yet  not  quite  an  impassable 
one,  for  under  the  guise  of  neutrality  it  would  tie 
the  hands  of  Union  men  and  freely  pass  supplies 
from  among  them  to  the  insurrectionists,  which  it 
could  not  do  as  an  open  enemy.  ...  It  recog 
nizes  no  fidelity  to  the  Constitution,  no  obligation 
to  maintain  the  Union;  and  while  very  many  who 
have  favored  it  are  doubtless  loyal  citizens,  it  is, 
nevertheless,  very  injurious  in  effect."  He  ex 
plained  shortly  his  reasons  on  habeas  corpus, 
rejoiced  in  the  more  favorable  attitude  of  foreign 
powers,  and  requested  at  least  400,000  men  and 
#400,000,000.  "A  right  result  at  this  time  will 
be  worth  more  to  the  world  than  ten  times  the 
money." 

He  then  went  again  fully  into  the  principle 
of  secession,  adding  nothing  new,  but  putting  his 
firmness  unmistakably  before  the  country.  One 
incident  connected  with  this  passage  is  too  charac 
teristic  of  the  President  to  omit.  Speaking  of 
the  "  sophism  "  of  peaceable  withdrawal  from  the 
Union,  he  said,  "  With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated 
they  have  been  drugging  the  public  mind  of  their 
section  for  more  than  thirty  years."  When,  ac 
cording  to  Lamon,  the  document  was  put  in  the 
hands  of  the  public  printer,  who  happened  to  be 


236  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

a  friend  of  Lincoln,  he  hurried  to  the  President 
and  told  him  that  "sugar-coated,"  which  might 
do  before  a  mass-meeting  in  Illinois,  would  not  be 
good  taste  in  a  message  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  a  message  which  would  become 
part  of  the  public  history  of  the  country.  Lin 
coln  laughed  and  replied  :  "  That  term  expresses 
precisely  my  idea,  and  I  am  not  going  to  change 
it.  '  Sugar-coated '  must  stand.  The  time  will 
never  come  in  this  country  when  the  people 
will  not  understand  exactly  what  'sugar-coated' 
means." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  message  appeared  this 
significant  statement.  "  This  is  essentially  a 
people's  contest.  On  the  side  of  the  Union  it 
is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world  that 
form  and  substance  of  government  whose  lead 
ing  object  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men  — 
to  lift  artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders.  .  .  . 
I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people 
understand  and  appreciate  this.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  while  in  this,  the  government's  time  of 
trial,  large  numbers  of  those  in  the  army  and 
navy  who  had  been  favored  with  the  offices  have 
resigned  and  proved  false  to  the  hand  which  had 
pampered  them,  not  one  common  soldier  or  com 
mon  sailor  is  known  to  have  deserted  his  flag." 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  NEW  PRESIDENT'S  TACT 

FOR  a  time  the  President  was  allowed  to  go 
through  the  ordinary  course  of  his  duties  with  no 
great  shock  of  either  success  or  disaster,  although 
the  cry  "  On  to  Richmond  ! "  ringing  in  his  ears 
taught  him  that  a  forward  movement  before  long 
was  a  political  necessity.  He  found  Congress 
giving  him  500,000  men  where  he  had  asked 
for  400,000  and  #500,000,000  where  he  asked  for 
$400,000,000.  He  felt  the  North  strongly  behind 
him,  but  to  keep  it  so,  and  to  win  the  doubtful 
states,  it  was  imperative  that  he  keep  in  touch 
with  the  politicians  and  the  people.  Much  of  his 
time  went  to  this,  but  he  found  hours  to  go  out 
and  test  new  guns  himself,  to  examine  balloons  for 
war  purposes,  to  listen  to  inventors  of  every  sort. 
He  met  every  problem,  every  emergency,  that 
offered  itself,  and  he  remained  the  simple  West 
erner.  He  was  forced  occasionally  to  change 
his  appearance  slightly  for  official  occasions,  but 
throughout  his  term  the  utterly  popular  nature  of 
his  life  and  manners  never  lessened.  He  spoke 
of  the  White  House  as  "  this  place."  He  often 

237 


238  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

went  to  see  his  cabinet  officials  where  another 
would  have  called  them  to  him.  Joke  books 
stood  piled  up  on  his  miscellaneous  work-table 
with  papers  of  State.  While  a  long  line  of 
people  were  waiting  to  shake  hands  with  him 
at  a  public  reception,  he  stopped  one  man  for 
several  minutes  while  he  extracted  in  whispers 
the  point  of  a  story  which  he  imperfectly  remem 
bered.  He  read  much  in  "  Recollections  of  A. 
Ward,  Showman,"  "  Flush  Time  in  Alabama," 
"  Petroleum  V.  Nasby's  Letters."  While  his  head 
was  full  of  military  plans  and  political  details,  he 
talked  about  Shakespeare  and  recited  the  King's 
Speech  in  Hamlet,  "  Oh  my  offence  is  rank,"  from 
memory,  or  anon  went  about  saying  in  a  sing 
song  :  — 

"  Mortal  man,  with  face  of  clay, 
Here  to-morrow,  gone  to-day." 

Life  was  responsibility,  tragedy,  burlesque,  to 
him.  He  took  the  machine  as  he  found  it.  He 
found  great  problems  of  State,  foreign  complica 
tions,  questions  of  warlike  strategy,  politicians  and 
their  tricks,  widows  and  their  sorrows,  old  friends 
and  Illinois  jokes ;  and  he  mixed  them  all  in  his 
daily  life,  and  responded  to  all,  smelling  of  the 
Western  prairie's  soil,  hard  sense  and  no  "frills." 

At  one  time  John  Ganson  of  Buffalo,-  who  was 
perfectly  bald,  called  on  Lincoln  and  said :  "  We 
are  voting  and  acting  in  the  dark  in  Congress, 


THE   NEW    PRESIDENTS   TACT  239 

and  I  demand  to  know  what  is  the  present  situa 
tion  ;  what  are  the  prospects  and  conditions  of 
the  several  campaigns  and  armies.  "  Ganson," 
said  the  President,  gazing  at  the  top  of  his  head, 
"  how  clean  you  shave." 

A  member  of  Congress  from.  Ohio  came  into 
his  presence  inebriate,  and,  knowing  Lincoln's 
fondness  for  a  certain  poem,  sank  into  a  chair  and 
exclaimed:  "Oh,  why  should  (hie)  er  spirit  of 
mortal  be  proud  ?  " 

"  My  dear  sir,"  replied  the  President,  "  I  see  no 
reason  whatever." 

A  New  Jersey  congressman  introduced  two 
friends  to  him,  saying  "  they  are  among  the 
weightiest  men  in  southern  New  Jersey."  When 
they  had  gone  Lincoln  said,  "  I  wonder  that  end 
of  the  state  didn't  tip  up  when  they  got  off  of  it." 

Lord  Lyons,  the  British  minister,  presented  to 
him  an  autograph  letter  from  Queen  Victoria, 
announcing,  in  the  usual  royal  manner,  a  mar 
riage  in  her  family,  and  added  that  whatever 
response  the  President  would  make  he  would  im 
mediately  transmit  to  his  royal  mistress.  Shaking 
the  document  at  the  bachelor  minister,  Lincoln 
exclaimed :  "  Go,  thou,  and  do  likewise." 

The  Austrian  minister  introduced  a  Count  who 
wished  a  position  in  the  Federal  army.  Although 
after  such  an  introduction  no  further  recommenda 
tion  was  called  for,  the  nobleman  rather  elabo- 


240  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

rately  described  his  title  and  his  family.  Tapping 
him  on  the  shoulder  the  President  remarked, 
"  Never  mind,  you  shall  be  treated  with  just  as 
much  consideration,  for  all  that.  I  will  see  to  it 
that  your  bearing  a  title  shall  not  hurt  you." 

This  was  the  man  whom  the  South  had  been 
taught  to  believe  half  tiger  and  half  ape.  As  he 
sat  at  his  table  biting  his  pen,  or  squatted  onto 
the  White  House  steps  to  finish  a  chat,  or  went 
with  the  strength  of  perfect  lucidity  to  the  heart 
of  matters  in  his  messages  to  Congress  or  his  ad 
vice  to  generals,  or  bore  insults  from  his  inferiors 
and  yet  ruled  then  inexorably,  his  was  a  kind  of 
greatness  with  which  the  world  was  for  the  first 
time  to,become  familiar.  Perhaps  if  anybody  had 
pointed  the  way,  it  was  Benjamin  Franklin.  John 
Stuart  Mill  said :  "  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the 
kind  of  man  Carlyle  in  his  better  days  taught  us 
to  worship  as  a  hero,"  and  some  one  else  has 
remarked  that  his  was  a  character  in  which  Plu 
tarch  would  have  rejoiced. 

The  next  great  event  which  we  are  to  see  him 
undergo  was  the  first  pitched  battle  of  the  war. 
On  July  21,  1861,  General  McDowell,  unwillingly, 
forced  by  the  President,  who  voiced  the  imperious 
will  of  the  North,  with  35,000  men  attacked  the 
Confederate  army  at  Bull  Run.  At  first  victory 
seemed  certain  for  the  Federal  troops,  but  through 
the  incompetency  of  General  Patterson,  who  failed 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  241 

to  do  what  he  had  been  told  to  do,  and  the  prompt 
ness  of  General  Johnson  in  coming  to  the  assist 
ance  of  Beauregard,  the  Union  army  was  surprised, 
defeated,  and  hurled  back  panic-stricken  to  the 
Potomac.  The  North  was  in  despair,  the  South 
reached  the  very  madness  of  confidence  and  joy. 
A  little  later  the  Southern  Congress  warned  all 
persons  not  in  sympathy  with  the  Confederacy  to 
get  out  within  forty  days. 

For  the  President,  who  had  forced  General 
Scott  and  General  McDowell  into  taking  a  step 
which  was  probably  not  a  misfortune,  since  the 
beginning  had  sometime  to  be  made,  it  now  re 
mained  to  take  immediate  action  for  recupera 
tion.  On  the  day  after  the  battle  he  called  to 
Washington  General  George  B.  McClellan,  a 
young  man  of  thirty-four,  highly  educated  in  mili 
tary  matters,  who  had  been  doing  good  work  in 
small  battles  in  West  Virginia.  It  was  the  gen-' 
eral  opinion  that  he  was  the  best  officer  in  the 
North  to  get  the  army  into  shape.  He  arrived 
in  Washington  on  July  26,  and  the  next  day  he 
wrote  privately :  "  I  find  myself  in  a  new  and 
strange  position  here :  President,  Cabinet,  General 
Scott,  and  all  deferring  to  me.  By  some  strange 
operation  of  magic,  I  seem  to  have  become  the 
power  of  the  land."  Deference  immediately  went 
to  his  head,  but  he  knew  one  part  of  his  business 
thoroughly,  and  the  raw  troops  rapidly  became  a 


242  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

well-drilled  army.  General  Meade,  referring  to 
this  power  of  organization,  once  said,  "  Had  there 
been  no  McClellan  there  could  have  been  no 
Grant,  for  the  army  made  no  essential  improve 
ment  under  any  of  his  successors." 

The  estimation  in  which  this  new  young 
Napoleon  was  held,  at  the  time  he  was  so  ably 
teaching  the  army  the  primary  routine,  is  in 
dicated  with  sufficient  truth  in  one  of  the 
general's  letters  to  his  wife,  dated  August  9, 
1861:  "I  receive  letter  after  letter,  have  con 
versation  after  conversation,  calling  on  me  to 
save  the  nation,  alluding  to  the  presidency, 
dictatorship,  etc.  As  I  hope  one  day  to  be 
united  with  you  forever  in  heaven,  I  have  no 
such  aspiration.  I  would  cheerfully  take  the 
dictatorship  and  agree  to  lay  down  my  life  when 
the  country  is  saved.  I  am  not  spoiled  by  my 
unexpected  new  position.  I  feel  sure  that  God 
will  give  me  strength  and  wisdom  to  preserve 
this  great  nation."  It  was  about  this  wide 
spread  dictatorship  talk  that  Lincoln  told  the 
story  of  the  man  in  the  thunder-shower  who 
prayed  for  a  little  less  noise  and  a  little  more 
light.  He  may  possibly  have  remembered  an 
earlier  expression  of  his,  praising  some  one  for 
being  able  to  compress  more  words  into  fewer 
ideas  than  anybody  he  had  ever  met.  "  The 
President  is  honest  and  means  well,"  said  the 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  243 

patronizing  McClellan.  "  My  relations  with  Mr. 
Lincoln,"  he  says  in  another  place,  "  were  gen 
erally  very  pleasant,  and  I  seldom  had  trouble 
with  him  when  we  could  meet  face  to  face. 
The  difficulty  always  arose  behind  my  back.  I 
believe  that  he  liked  me  personally,  and  cer 
tainly  he  was  always  much  influenced  by  me 
when  we  were  together."  It  was  part  of  the 
President's  nature  to  seem  influenced  by  every 
body,  even  when  his  will  was  fixed  beyond  re 
call,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  at  this  time  he 
and  the  country  both  believed  that  McClellan 
was  incomparably  the  best  accessible  reliance. 

While  McClellan  was  drilling  the  army  Lin 
coln  was  steadily  keeping  up  his  fight  for  the  // 
political  solidarity  of  the  North  and  the  con-» 
ciliation  of  the  border  states.  When  Congress 
adjourned  August  6,  and  Congressman  Mc- 
Clernand,  who  had  represented  lower  Illinois  for 
many  years,  came  to  say  good-by  to  the  Presi 
dent,  Lincoln  handed  him  a  brigadier  general's 
commission  and  told  him  to  "  keep  Egypt  right 
side  up."  About  this  time  General  Fremont 
was  making  trouble  in  Missouri  by  his  arbi 
trary  and  meddlesome  behavior,  among  his  ex 
ploits  being  a  proclamation  confiscating  prop 
erty  and  liberating  slaves.  Nothing  shows 
more  intimately  what  Lincoln's  policy  was  at 
this  time  than  a  letter  to  his  old  friend  Brown- 


244  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

ing,  dated  September  22,  1861,  and  marked 
"  private  and  confidential."  Fremont  was  liked 
by  the  abolitionists,  naturally,  and  a  tap  at  them 
will  easily  be  found  in  the  President's  letter. 
What  he  says  about  the  impropriety  of  eman 
cipation  without  legislation  is  also  important, 
but  the  most  significant  of  all  is  what  bears  on 
his  persistent  border  policy.  "  He  must  have 
Kentucky."  The  principal  part  of  the  letter  is : 

"  General  Fremont's  proclamation  as  to  confiscation 
of  property  and  the  liberation  of  slaves  is  purely  politi 
cal  and  not  within  the  range  of  military  law  or  neces 
sity.  If  a  commanding  general  finds  a  necessity  to 
seize  the  farm  of  a  private  owner  for  a  pasture,  an 
encampment,  or  a  fortification,  he  has  the  right  to  do 
so,  and  to  so  hold  it  as  long  as  the  necessity  lasts ; 
and  this  is  within  military  law,  because  within  military 
necessity.  But  to  say  the  farm  shall  no  longer  belong 
to  the  owner,  or  his  heirs  forever,  and  this  as  well 
when  the  farm  is  not  needed  for  military  purposes  as 
when  it  is,  is  purely  political,  without  the  savor  of 
military  law  about  it.  And  the  same  is  true  of  slaves. 
If  the  general  needs  them,  he  can  seize  them  and 
use  them ;  but  when  the  need  is  past,  it  is  not  for  him 
to  fix  their  permanent  future  condition.  That  must 
be  settled  according  to  laws  made  by  law-makers,  and 
not  by  military  proclamations.  The  proclamation  in 
the  point  in  question  is  simply  'dictatorship.'  It 
assumes  that  the  general  may  do  anything  he  pleases 
—  confiscate  the  lands  and  free  the  slaves  of  loyal 
people,  as  well  as  of  disloyal  ones.  And  going  the 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  245 

whole  figure,  I  have  no  doubt,  would  be  more  popular 
with  some  thoughtless  people  than  that  which  has 
been  done.  But  I  cannot  assume  this  reckless  posi 
tion,  nor  allow  others  to  assume  it  on  my  respon 
sibility. 

"You  speak  of  it  as  being  the  only  means  of  saving 
the  government.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  itself  the  sur 
render  of  the  government.  Can  it  be  pretended  that 
it  is  any  longer  the  government  of  the  United  States 
—  any  government  of  the  constitution  and  laws  — 
wherein  a  general  or  a  President  may  make  per 
manent  rules  of  property  by  proclamation  ?  I  do  not 
say  Congress  might  not  with  propriety  pass  a  law  on 
the  point,  just  such  as  General  Fremont  proclaimed. 
I  do  not  say  I  might  not,  as  a  member  of  Congress, 
vote  for  it.  What  I  object  to  is,  that  I,  as  President, 
shall  expressly  or  impliedly  seize  and  exercise  the 
permanent  legislative  functions  of  the  government. 

"  So  much  as  to  principle.  Now  as  to  policy.  No 
doubt  the  thing  was  popular  in  some  quarters,  and 
would  have  been  more  so  if  it  had  been  a  general 
declaration  of  emancipation.  The  Kentucky  legisla 
ture  would  not  budge  till  that  proclamation  was  modi 
fied  ;  and  General  Anderson  telegraphed  me  that  on 
the  news  of  General  Fremont  having  actually  issued 
deeds  of  manumission,  a  whole  company  of  our  volun 
teers  threw  down  their  arms  and  disbanded.  I  was 
so  assured  as  to  think  it  probable  that  the  very  arms 
we  had  furnished  Kentucky  would  be  turned  against 
us.  I  think  to  lose  Kentucky  is  nearly  the  same  as 
to  lose  the  whole  game.  Kentucky  gone,  we  cannot 
hold  Missouri,  nor,  as  I  think,  Maryland.  These  all 
against  us,  and  the  job  on  our  hands  is  too  large  for 


246  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

us.  We  would  as  well  consent  to  separation  at  once, 
including  the  surrender  of  this  capital.  On  the  con 
trary,  if  you  will  give  up  your  restlessness  for  new 
positions,  and  back  me  manfully  on  the  grounds  upon 
which  you  and  other  kind  friends  gave  me  the  election 
and  have  approved  in  my  public  documents,  we  shall 
go  through  triumphantly." 

On  the  question  of  emancipation  Secretary 
Cameron  agreed  with  Fremont,  and  did  what  he 
could  to  help  him,  besides  making  other  moves 
in  the  same  direction ;  but  the  President  was 
firm.  The  amount  which  he  would  permit  in  the 
present  state  of  public  opinion  was  limited  by  the 
Act  of  Congress,  passed  in  August,  freeing  slaves 
employed  by  the  Confederates  in  military  service, 
which  had  already  been  done  practically  by  Gen 
eral  Butler's  ingenious  doctrine  that  they  were 
"  contraband  of  war." 

The  North  was  again  growing  impatient  for 
a  fight,  but  McClellan  had  more  resisting  power 
than  the  preceding  generals,  and  he  remained 
firm.  A  small  battle  with  which  he  had  nothing 
to  do  was  fought,  disastrously  to  the  Federals,  at 
Ball's  Bluff  on  October  21,  and  cost  the  life  of 
Colonel  Baker,  Senator  from  Oregon,  and  a  friend 
of  Lincoln.  When  the  President  left  McClellan's 
office  after  learning  this  news  he  was  seen  to  tot 
ter,  as  if  about  to  fall,  and  the  tears  were  stream 
ing  down  his  cheeks.  Ten  days  later  General 


''L-C/t/VX-          *"y.          f 

THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  247 

Scott  resigned,  and  General  McClellan  was  put 
at  the  head  of  the  army.  His  confidence  in  his 
own  opinion  was  unlimited ;  he  felt  that  his  troops 
were  not  ready;  and  he  cared  nothing  for  politi 
cal  considerations.  Therefore,  he  began  to  ex 
asperate  the  North  beyond  endurance,  but  the 
President,  sensitive  as  he  was  to  popular  feeling, 
did  not  finally  force  his  general  into  action  until 
many  months  later. 

Meanwhile  he  did  quietly  one  of  the  most  use 
ful  deeds  of  wisdom  in  his  whole  career.  Just 
as  he  had  checked  Seward's  pertness  to  England 
in  the  instructions  to  Adams  he  now  reined  in 
the  fury  of  the  North  at  British  hostility,  when 
the  capture  of  Mason  and  Slidell  brought  the 
bitter  feelings  on  both  sides  to  the  front.  'These 
two  men  were  the  Confederate  envoys  to  Eng 
land  and  France,  respectively.  They  ran  the 
blockade  at  Charleston,  went  to  Havana,  and 
sailed  from  that  city  November  7,  by  the  Brit 
ish  mail  steamship  Trent.  Captain  Wilkes,  of 
the  United  States  war  sloop  San  Jacinto,  on 
November  8,  took  the  delegates  off  the  Trent, 
after  firing  a  shot  across  her  bows  and  receiving 
a  protest.  Mason  and  Slidell  were  confined  in 
Fort  Warren,  Boston  Harbor,  and  the  whole 
North  broke  out  in  enthusiastic  approval  of  the 
deed,  and  Secretary  Welles  sent  Wilkes  the  offi 
cial  approval  of  the  Navy  Department.  Not  so 


248  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Lincoln.  He  knew  the  difference  between  popu 
lar  clamor  and  immovable  popular  will.  He  saw 
that  the  act  was  unwise  and  wrong,  and  he  lost 
no  time  in  saying  so.  On  the  day  the  news  was 
received,  he  said  in  private :  "  I  fear  the  traitors 
will  prove  to  be  white  elephants.  We  must  stick 
to  American  principles  concerning  the  rights  of 
neutrals.  We  fought  Great  Britain  for  insisting, 
by  theory  and  practice,  on  the  right  to  do  pre 
cisely  what  Captain  Wilkes  has  done.  If  Great 
Britain  shall  now  protest  against  the  act,  and  de 
mand  their  release,  we  must  give  them  up,  apolo 
gize  for  the  act  as  a  violation  of  our  doctrines, 
and  thus  forever  bind  her  over  to  keep  the  peace 
in  relation  to  neutrals,  and  so  acknowledge  that 
she  has  been  wrong  for  sixty  years." 

England  was  not  slow  in  showing  her  resent 
ment.  The  British  government  ordered  immedi 
ate  preparations  for  war  and  demanded  reparation 
within  seven  days.  Lincoln  wished  arbitration, 
but  the  British  demand  was  for  immediate  yield 
ing.  The  Federal  government  yielded,  and  the 
President  dropped  a  most  astute  phrase  to  help 
public  opinion  reconcile  itself  to  the  submission. 
"  One  war  at  a  time,"  said  he,  thus  allowing  any 
body  who  was  hungry  for  an  international  fight 
to  live  in  hope,  although  the  President  himself 
had  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  British  inso 
lence  did  not  change  the  truth  that  the  United 


THE    NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  249 

States  was  in  the  wrong.  He,  supported  by 
Seward,  acted  in  defiance  both  of  the  mass  of 
the  people  and  of  the  leaders,  and  thus  avoided 
giving  the  South  the  active  aid  of  Great  Britain 
and  probably  of  France.  John  Stuart  Mill  wrote 
of  this  deed :  "  If  reparation  were  made  at  all,  of 
which  few  of  us  felt  more  than  a  hope,  we  thought 
that  it  would  be  made  obviously  as  a  concession 
to  prudence,  not  to  principle.  We  thought  that 
there  would  have  been  truckling  to  the  news 
paper  editors  and  supposed  fire-eaters  who  were 
crying  out  for  retaining  the  prisoners  at  all  haz 
ards.  .  .  .  We  expected  everything,  in  short, 
which  would  have  been  weak,  and  timid,  and 
paltry.  The  only  thing  which  no  one  seemed 
to  expect  is  what  has  actually  happened.  Mr. 
Lincoln's  government  have  done  none  of  these 
things.  Like  honest  men  they  have  said  in  di 
rect  terms  that  our  demand  was  right ;  that  they 
yielded  to  it  because  it  was  just;  that  if  they 
themselves  had  received  the  same  treatment, 
they  would  have  demanded  the  same  reparation  ; 
and  if  what  seemed  to  be  the  American  side  of 
the  question  was  not  the  just  side,  they  would  be 
on  the  side  of  justice,  happy  as  they  were  to  find 
after  their  resolution  had  been  taken,  that  it  was 
also  the  side  which  America  had  formerly  de 
fended.  Is  there  any  one  capable  of  a  moral  4 
judgment  or  feeling,  who  will  say  that  his  opin- 


250  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

ion  of  America  and  American  statesmen  is  not 
raised  by  such  an  act,  done  on  such  grounds  ? " 

When  Congress  met  in  December  Lincoln  in 
his  message  said :  "  In  considering  the  policy  to 
be  adopted  for  suppressing  the  insurrection,  I 
have  been  anxious  and  careful  that  the  inevitable 
conflict  for  the  purpose  shall  not  degenerate  into 
a  violent  and  remorseless  revolutionary  struggle. 
I  have,  therefore,  in  every  case  thought  it  proper 
to  keep  the  integrity  of  the  Union  prominent  as 
the  primary  object  of  the  contest  on  our  part; 
leaving  all  questions  which  are  not  of  vital  mili 
tary  importance  to  the  more  deliberate  action  of 
the  legislature."  The  Secretary  of  War  did  not 
agree  in  this  policy,  however,  and  his  differences 
with  the  President  speedily  made  his  place  too 
hot  for  him.  As  Cameron  was  an  ordinary 
machine  politician,  whom  Lincoln  had  appointed 
purely  to  satisfy  certain  party  leaders,  he  natu 
rally  in  such  a  crisis  caused  no  end  of  trouble 
by  his  inefficiency  and  lack  of  business  integrity. 
His  meddling  with  emancipation  was  the  final 
step  which  led  to  a  change  of  the  greatest  mo 
ment  in  the  history  of  the  rebellion  and  in  the 
life  of  Lincoln,  bringing  into  his  cabinet  one  of 
the  big  figures  of  the  war.  In  his  first  annual 
report  Cameron,  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
President,  recommended  the  arming  of  the  slaves 
and  sent  the  report  in  printed  form  to  the  post- 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  251 

masters  all  over  the  country  for  delivery  to  the 
newspapers,  before  it  had  been  delivered  to  Con 
gress.  Lincoln,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  this,  or 
dered  the  copies  recalled  by  telegraph,  had  the 
report  revised,  and  a  new  edition  printed.  In  its 
final  form  the  recommendation  stood  thus :  — 

"  It  is  as  clearly  a  right  of  the  government  to 
arm  slaves  when  it  may  become  necessary,  as  it 
is  to  use  gunpowder  taken  from  the  enemy. 
What  to  do  with  that  species  of  property  is  a 
question  that  time  and  circumstance  will  solve, 
and  need  not  be  anticipated  further  than  to  re 
peat  that  they  cannot  be  held  by  the  government 
as  slaves.  It  would  be  useless  to  keep  them  as 
prisoners  of  war;  and  self-preservation,  the 
highest  duty  of  a  government  or  of  individuals, 
demands  that  they  should  be  disposed  of  or  em 
ployed  in  the  most  effective  manner  that  will 
tend  most  speedily  to  suppress  the  insurrection 
and  restore  the  authority  of  the  government.  If 
it  shall  be  found  that  the  men  who  have  been 
held  by  the  rebels  as  slaves  are  capable  of  bearing 
arms  and  performing  efficient  military  service,  it 
is  the  right,  and  may  become  the  duty,  of  the 
government  to  arm  and  equip  them,  and  employ 
their  services  against  the  rebels  under  proper 
military  regulation,  discipline,  and  command. 

"  It  is  already  a  grave  question  what  shall  be 
done  with  those  slaves  who  were  abandoned  by 


252  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

their  owners  on  the  advance  of  our  troops  into 
southern  territory,  as  at  Beaufort  district  in  South 
Carolina.  The  number  left  within  our  control  at 
that  point  is  very  considerable,  and  similar  cases 
will  probably  occur.  What  shall  be  done  with 
them  ?  Can  we  afford  to  send  them  forward  to 
their  masters,  to  be  by  them  armed  against  us  or 
used  in  producing  supplies  to  sustain  the  rebel 
lion  ?  Their  labor  may  be  useful  to  us ;  with 
held  from  the  enemy,  it  lessens  his  military 
resources,  and  withholding  them  has  no  tendency 
to  induce  the  horrors  of  insurrection,  even  in  the 
rebel  communities.  They  constitute  a  military 
resource,  and,  being  such,  that  they  should  not 
be  turned  over  to  the  enemy  is  too  plain  to  dis 
cuss.  Why  deprive  him  of  supplies  by  a  blockade, 
and  voluntarily  give  him  men  to  produce  them  ?  " 
It  has  been  said  that  Lincoln  did  not  remove 
Cameron  immediately  for  this  act  merely  because 
he  did  not  wish  to  antagonize  the  abolitionists, 
and  knew  that  the  financial  pressure  would  soon 
force  his  removal,  as  the  business  men  of  the 
country  were  angry  over  the  disgraceful  way 
in  which  the  War  Department  contracts  were 
handled.  In  January,  Lincoln  took  final  action. 
Nicolay  and  Hay  quote  under  date  of  January  1 1, 
the  following :  — 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :    As  you  have  more  than  once   ex 
pressed  a  desire  for  a  change  of  position,  I  can  now 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  253 

gratify  you  consistently  with  my  view  of  the  public 
interest.  I  therefore  propose  nominating  you  to  the 
Senate,  next  Monday,  as  minister  to  Russia. 

"  Very  sincerely  your  friend, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Colonel  McClure  says,  probably  accurately, 
that  that  is  not  the  letter  which  Cameron  re 
ceived.  According  to  the  account  of  Colonel 
McClure,  who  on  many  points  has  given  facts 
where  the  official  biographers  indulge  in  friendly 
embellishment,  which  in  this  case  was  certainly 
needless,  Lincoln  sent  the  letter  by  Chase,  who 
delivered  it  in  entire  ignorance  of  its  contents. 
McClure  saw  Cameron  that  night  and  found  him 
agitated,  weeping,  and  saying  that  the  President's 
act  meant  his  personal  degradation.  The  letter, 
which  McClure  saw,  he  says  he  remembers  almost 
literally.  It  was  as  follows :  "  I  have  this  day 
nominated  Hon.  Edwin  M.  Stanton  to  be  Secre 
tary  of  War,  and  you  to  be  minister  to  Russia." 
On  the  following  day  Lincoln  was  requested  to 
withdraw  this  dismissal  and  allow  Cameron  to 
antedate  a  letter  of  resignation.  The  President 
was  willing,  a  new  correspondence  was  prepared, 
and  a  month  later  it  was  given  to  the  public. 

No  member  of  the  cabinet,  according  to  the 
best  evidence,  knew  of  Lincoln's  intention  to 
appoint  Stanton.  The  President  acted  alone, 
and  it  was  one  of  the  most  striking  things  he 


254  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

ever  did.  Years  before  Stanton  had  bitterly  in 
sulted  him.  Some  references  to  his  appearance 
Lincoln  enjoyed.  He  used  to  tell  himself  about 
the  man  who  offered  him  a  knife  on  a  railway 
train,  saying  it  had  been  given  him  to  keep 
until  he  met  some  one  uglier  than  himself.  But 
Stanton's  scorching  contempt  had  been  a  differ 
ent  matter  and  had  stung  him  sharply.  Since  the 
new  administration  the  comments  made  on  the 
President  by  Stanton  were  frequent  and  violent 
He  had  spoken  of  "  venality  and  corruption,"  by 
which  he  meant  a  use  of  the  patronage  that  he 
never  countenanced  for  a  second  after  he  accepted 
the  President's  offer.  One  of  his  phrases  was 
the  "  painful  imbecility  of  Lincoln."  Above  all 
things  he  hated  wire-pulling  and  office-seekers, 
and  he  speedily  modified  the  state  of  things  in 
which,  according  to  a  newspaper,  "  a  boy  threw  a 
stone  at  a  dog  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue  and  hit 
three  brigadier  generals."  For  Lincoln  to  select 
such  a  man,  when  he  had  such  cause  for  personal 
sensitiveness,  but  more  particularly  when  his  own 
strength  lay  in  submitting  to  all  sorts  of  minor 
abuses,  and  even  committing  them,  in  order  to 
gain  in  exchange  some  more  fundamental  good, 
while  Stanton  rode  roughshod,  harsh,  and  un 
compromising  straight  for  his  goal,  was  certainly 
a  proof  of  brilliant  magnanimity,  instinct,  and 
wisdom. 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  255 

McClellan  had  been  satisfied  with  Cameron, 
because  the  Secretary  had  never  interfered  with- 
him,  but  the  general  in  his  book  makes  the  sig 
nificant  exception  that  he  could  not  always  dis 
pose  of  arms  and  supplies  as  he  thought  the 
good  of  the  service  demanded.  Several  weeks 
before  the  removal  McClellan  heard  that  a  com 
mittee  of  New  York  bankers  had  called  on  Chase 
to  demand  Cameron's  retirement.  It  often  hap 
pened,  McClellan  says,  that  when  a  shipment  of 
unusually  good  arms  arrived  from  Europe  and  he 
wished  them  for  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  he 
found  that  Cameron  had  promised  them  to  some 
political  friend  for  future  use  in  some  remote 
state.  Nevertheless,  so  fond  of  his  own  way  was 
the  general,  that  he  did  his  best  to  keep  this 
Secretary  in  office,  fearing  (what  happened)  that 
the  next  Minister  of  War  might  mix  in  military 
matters.  It  was  casually  that  McClellan  heard 
one  day  of  the  change,  and  immediately  after 
Stanton  called,  to  say  that  his  nomination  had 
been  sent  to  the  Senate.  Lincoln  called  to 
mollify  the  general  by  telling  him  he  knew 
Stanton  was  a  friend  of  his,  and  he  would  have 
consulted  him  except  that  he  feared  it  would 
be  said  that  McClellan  dragooned  him  into  it. 
McClellan  thus  proceeds  with  his  narrative. 

"  From  the  light  that  has  since  been  thrown 
on  Stanton's  character,  I  am  satisfied  that  from  an 


256  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

early  date  he  was  in  this  treasonable  conspiracy, 
and  that  his  course  in  ingratiating  himself  with 
me,  and  pretending  to  be  my  friend  before  he 
was  in  office,  was  only  a  part  of  his  long  system 
of  treachery.  .  .  . 

"  I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Stanton,  and  probably 
had  not  even  heard  of  him,  before  reaching 
Washington  in  1861.  Not  many  weeks  after 
arriving  I  was  introduced  to  him  as  a  safe  ad 
viser  on  legal  points.  From  that  moment  he 
did  his  best  to  ingratiate  himself  with  me,  and 
professed  the  warmest  friendship  and  devotion. 
I  had  no  reason  to  suspect  his  sincerity,  and 
therefore  believed  him  to  be  what  he  professed. 
The  most  disagreeable  thing  about  him  was  the 
extreme  virulence  with  which  he  abused  the  Presi 
dent,  the  administration,  and  the  Republican  party. 
He  carried  this  to  such  an  extent  that  I  was  often 
shocked  by  it. 

"  He  never  spoke  of  the  President  in  any  other 
way  than  as  the  '  original  gorilla,'  and  often  said 
that  Du  Chaillu  was  a  fool  to  wander  all  the  way 
to  Africa  in  search  of  what  he  could  so  easily 
have  found  at  Springfield,  Illinois.  Nothing 
could  be  more  bitter  than  his  words  and  manner 
always  were  when  speaking  of  the  administration 
and  the  Republican  party.  He  never  gave  them 
credit  for  honesty  or  patriotism,  and  very  seldom 
for  any  ability. 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S    TACT  257 

"  At  some  time  during  the  autumn  of  1 86 1,  Sec 
retary  Cameron  made  quite  an  abolition  speech 
to  some  newly  arrived  regiment.  Next  day 
Stanton  urged  me  to  arrest  him  for  inciting  to 
insubordination.  He  often  advocated  the  propri 
ety  of  my  seizing  the  government  and  taking 
affairs  into  my  own  hands." 

Such  was  the  character  whom  the  President 
recognized  as  the  best  possible  man  to  undertake 
the  enormous  duties  of  the  War  Department. 
"  Lincoln  was  a  supreme  politician,"  says  Charles 
A.  Dana.  "  He  understood  politics  because  he 
understood  human  nature."  Such  a  move  as 
this  shows  that  he  understood  its  large  and 
strange  aspects  as  well  as  he  did  its  details  and 
weaknesses.  He  trusted  nobody  absolutely,  and 
he  saw  what  was  useful  in  anybody.  It  is  reported 
plausibly  that  he  once  said  there  was  but  one 
man  in  Congress  of  whose  personal  and  political 
friendship  he  was  entirely  sure ;  and  yet  it  would 
be  impossible  to  call  him  distrustful.  He  merely 
had  the  trait  of  seeing  some  very  important  mat 
ters  with  an  almost  inhuman  lack  of  prejudice. 

As  the  war  progressed,  Lincoln  spent  much  of 
his  time  in  the  War  Department,  reading  his  file 
of  copies  of  the  department  telegrams.  When  he 
got  to  the  end  of  the  new  ones  and  began  on 
those  he  had  seen  before,  he  frequently  remarked, 
"  Well,  I  guess  I  have  got  down  to  the  raisins/' 


258  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

which  observation  he  explained  by  the  story  of  a 
little  girl  who  began  by  eating  a  lot  of  raisins, 
followed  them  with  sweets,  became  sick,  and  at  a 
certain  point  in  her  proceedings  made  the  above 
remark.  Apparently  one  change  was  made  in 
regard  to  this  file  of  telegrams  in  the  President's 
room  at  the  War  Department.  Albert  E.  H.  John 
son,  Stanton's  confidential  clerk,  says  in  the  Wash 
ington  Post,  July  14,  1891:  "Mr.  Stanton's  theory 
was  that  everything  concerned  his  own  depart 
ment.  It  was  he  who  was  carrying  on  the  war. 
It  was  he  who  would  be  held  responsible  for  the 
secret  machinations  of  the  enemy  in  the  rear  as 
well  as  the  unwarranted  success  of  the  enemy  in 
front.  Hence  he  established  a  system  of  military 
censorship  which  has  never,  for  vastness  of  scope 
or  completeness  of  detail,  been  equalled  in  any  war 
before  or  since,  or  in  any  other  country  under  the 
sun.  The  whole  telegraphic  system  of  the  United 
States,  with  its  infinite  ramifications,  centred  in  his 
office.  There,  adjoining  his  own  personal  rooms 
sat  General  Eckert,  Hymer  D.  Bates,  Albert  B. 
Chandler,  and  Charles  A.  Tinker,  —  all  of  them 
young  men  of  brilliant  promise  and  now  shining 
lights  in  the  electrical  world.  Every  hour  in  the 
day  and  night,  under  all  circumstances,  in  all  sea 
sons,  there  sat  at  their  instruments  sundry  mem 
bers  of  this  little  group.  The  passage  between  their 
room  and  the  Secretary's  was  unobstructed.  It 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  259 

was  an  interior  communication  —  they  did  not 
have  even  to  go  through  the  corridor  to  reach 
him  —  and  every  despatch  relating  to  the  war  or 
party  politics  that  passed  over  the  Western  Union 
wires,  north  or  south,  they  read.  Cipher  telegrams 
were  considered  especially  suspicious,  so  every 
one  of  those  was  reported.  The  young  men  I 
have  mentioned  were  masters  of  cipher-transla 
tion.  Every  message  to  or  from  the  President  or 
any  member  of  his  household  passed  under  the 
eye  of  the  Secretary.  If  one  cabinet  minister 
communicated  with  another  over  the  wire  by  a 
secret  code,  Mr.  Stanton  had  the  message  deci 
phered  and  read  to  him.  If  General  McClellan  tel 
egraphed  to  his  wife  from  the  front,  Mr.  Stanton 
knew  the  contents  of  every  despatch.  Hence,  as 
far  as  the  conduct  of  the  war  was  concerned,  Mr. 
Stanton  knew  a  thousand  secrets  where  Lincoln 
knew  one ;  for  the  Secretary's  instructions  were 
that  telegrams  indiscriminately  should  not  be 
shown  to  the  President." 

At  the  time  this  change  was  made  certain 
Republicans  wished  a  general  reconstruction  of 
the  cabinet.  Welles  was  objected  to  and  char 
acterized  in  a  cartoon  as  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea 
on  the  neck  of  Sinbad  Lincoln.  Seward  had 
one  set  of  enemies,  and  nearly  every  member  of 
the  cabinet  another.  The  President,  in  answer  to 
one  of  their  demands  for  a  general  upheaval,  told 


260  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

of  the  man  who  lay  behind  his  woodpile  to  watch 
for  a  skunk.  In  place  of  the  expected  one,  seven 
appeared.  He  fired,  and  killed  one,  but  it  "  raised 
such  a  stink  he  decided  to  let  the  other  six  go." 

As  the  winter  wore  on  the  dissatisfaction  with 
McClellan  increased.  The  President  tried  in 
vain  to  get  him  to  move.  He  had  all  sorts  of 
excuses.  He  saw  always  the  Confederate  advan 
tages  and  his  own  disadvantages,  never  the  re 
verse.  R.  E.  Fenton  tells  how  he  and  Schuyler 
Colfax  called  on  the  President,  December  18,  and 
Lincoln  said  that  sky  and  earth  seemed  to  beckon 
the  army  on,  but  that  he  supposed  General 
McClellan  knew  his  business  and  had  his  reasons 
for  disregarding  these  hints  of  Providence.  He 
advised  Congress  to  take  a  recess  for  a  few 
weeks,  and  then  if  McClellan  had  not  moved, 
Providence  would  have  stepped  in  and  said  it 
was  impossible.  That  was  true.  Bad  weather 
came  and  offered  another  excuse,  for,  as  Lincoln 
said,  McClellan  believed  the  rain  fell  only  on  the 
just.  The  general  also,  like  nearly  everybody 
else,  had  a  notion  of  finishing  the  war  in  one 
battle,  for  which  he  wished  to  get  elaborately 
ready.  That  the  real  nature  of  the  task  was  in 
no  way  understood  so  early  is  hinted  by  General 
Burnside's  answer  to  a  question  by  Colonel 
McClure,  who  asked  why  McClellan  didn't  move 
on  Richmond.  General  Burnside  said  that  it 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S   TACT  261 

would  not  be  a  difficult  task  for  McClellan's  army 
to  capture  Manassas,  march  upon  Richmond,  and 
enter  that  capital,  "  but,"  he  added,  emphatically, 
as  if  naming  a  conclusive  objection,  "  it  would  cost 
ten  thousand  men  to  do  it."  McClellan's  fear, 
however,  was  not  of  the  great  loss,  but  of  defeat. 
He  had  the  most  exaggerated  idea  of  the  strength 
of  the  armies  opposed  to  him.  Lincoln  bitterly 
said  that  if  the  commander  had  no  use  for  his 
army,  he  would  like  to  "  borrow "  it.  "  If  Mc- 
Clellan  can't  fish,"  he  observed,  "  he  ought  to  cut 
bait  at  a  time  like  this."  Finally,  he  positively 
ordered  a  forward  movement  not  later  than  Feb 
ruary  22,  which  was  to  be  made  on  a  plan  ap 
proved  by  him  and  some  of  his  generals,  and 
opposed  by  McClellan,  who  had  one  of  his  own ; 
and  the  result  was  that  McClellan  had  his  way. 
The  general  opinion  is  that  Lincoln  showed  re 
markable  intelligence  in  grasping  the  art  of  war 
on  short  notice,  and  that  in  his  differences  with 
some  of  his  generals  he  was  usually  right  on 
purely  strategic  matters,  and  always  right  on 
political  grounds.  There  are  some  who  think  he 
interfered  in  too  much  detail,  but  they  are  few. 
His  differences  with  McClellan  on  the  purely 
military  advantages  of  opposite  plans  are  of  inter 
est  mainly  to  military  men.  Some  conclusions 
they  reach  about  the  President's  character  are : 
that  he  put  an  immense  value  on  the  safety  of 


262  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

his  capital ;  that  he  was  able  to  see  very  clearly 
all  kinds  of  military  arguments ;  and  that  he  felt 
the  one  absolutely  certain  thing  was  that  indefi 
nite  delay  wearied  the  North  and  gained  nothing. 
McClellan  would  not  move,  however,  and  on 
March  9  came  the  news  that  the  Confederates 
had  retired  from  their  position  on  the  Potomac, 
feeling  unable  to  hold  it.  This  proof  of  the 
needlessness  of  McClellan's  caution  enraged  the 
North.  Lincoln  removed  him  from  the  com 
mand  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States 
March  n,  after  the  general  had  personally 
taken  the  field  on  hearing  of  the  Confederate 
retreat.  He  retained  command  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  For  a  time  Stanton  was  prac 
tically  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  a  very  bad 
one  he  is  agreed  to  have  been.  Just  as  Mc 
Clellan  was  about  finally  to  meet  the  enemy, 
he  heard  that  Lincoln,  believing  that  Washing 
ton  was  unsafe,  had  retained  for  the  defence 
of  the  capital  a  corps  under  McDowell  which 
had  been  promised  to  McClellan  for  a  particular 
purpose  in  the  campaign.  The  excuse  for  the 
President's  action  is  that  McClellan  had  failed 
to  carry  out  his  agreement  to  leave  Washing 
ton  properly  protected,  and  opinion  is  divided 
on  the  question  of  whether  the  President's  act 
was  justifiable.  McClellan  continued  his  tactics. 
May  3  the  Confederates  again  withdrew  just 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENTS   TACT  263 

before  he  was  ready  to  attack,  and  then  the 
Northern  army  continued  its  advance.  Lin 
coln's  next  interference  was  unfortunate.  He 
forbade  McDowell,  who  had  finally  been  allowed 
to  act  under  McClellan,  to  advance  on  the  day 
he  thought  wisest,  because,  as  one  of  Mc 
Dowell's  staff  officers  told  Mr.  Morse,  it  was 
Sunday,  the  day  on  which  Bull  Run  had  been 
fought,  and  he  dreaded  the  omen. 

Immediately  after,  he,  perhaps  influenced  by 
Stanton's  panic,  withdrew  McDowell  from  McClel 
lan  altogether,  frightened  by  Stonewall  Jackson's 
feint  at  the  capital.  McDowell  protested  in  vain 
against  being  duped  by  Jackson's  trick,  but  Lin 
coln  was  firm,  and  Jackson,  having  accomplished 
his  purpose,  withdrew.  The  one  thing  that 
seemed  able  to  make  the  President  lose  his  head 
was  a  possible  attack  on  Washington.  It  is  also 
true,  as  Mr.  Morse  says,  that  although  almost  in 
fallible  in  judgment,  given  time,  he  was  slow,  and 
this  decision,  like  the  one  with  which  he  spoiled 
the  Sumter  expedition,  had  to  be  made  in  haste. 
With  this  excuse  of  needless  weakening,  McClel 
lan  remained  almost  quiet  until  the  Confederates 
forced  him  south  to  the  James  River.  Some 
battles  were  fought,  but  not  enough  to  count  for 
anything,  and  the  North,  although  not  the  army, 
was  as  indignant  at  McClellan  as  he  was  at 
the  administration.  The  general's  language 


264  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

of  reproach  was  such  that  Lincoln's  keeping 
him  in  command  so  long  and  answering  him 
only  with  mild  reason  is  another  proof  of  rare 
patience. 

Meantime  no  political  step  of  immediate  effect 
followed  for  some  time  after  the  appointment  of 
Stanton.  In  March  the  President  sent  to  Con 
gress  a  resolution  that  the  United  States  ought  to 
give  pecuniary  aid  to  any  state  which  might 
adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery.  In  his 
December  message  he  had  already  suggested 
colonization  of  negroes  freed  under  the  act  of 
August  6  in  some  "  climate  congenial  to  them." 
He  had  always  feared  the  race  problems  which 
would  result  from  emancipation,  and  it  was  part 
of  his  slight  grasp  of  certain  mathematical  truths 
that  he  believed  colonization  possible.  Slavery 
was  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the 
President  signing  the  bill  April  16.  In  March, 
Representative  Arnold,  of  Illinois,  introduced  a 
bill  prohibiting  slavery  wherever  Congress  could 
prohibit  it,  in  the  territories  and  on  all  national 
property,  such  as  forts  and  vessels ;  the  bill  passed, 
and  Lincoln  signed  it,  as  he  did  another  bill  go 
ing  far  in  the  direction  of  freeing  slaves  whose 
owners  had  rebelled.  In  many  ways,  however, 
he  held  back.  In  May  he  revoked  an  order  of 
emancipation  issued  in  the  South  by  General 
Hunter,  as  he  had  already  revoked  that  of  General 


THE   NEW   PRESIDENT'S    TACT  265 

Fremont  in  Missouri.  About  the  arming  of  ne 
groes  he  was  also  cautious,  for  while  there  was  a 
strong  feeling  for  it  in  certain  parts  of  the  North 
there  was  equal  hostility  to  it  nearer  the  border. 
In  the  late  fall  General  Butler  had  informed  Lin 
coln  that  he  thought  there  was  too  much  politics 
in  the  war,  and  asked  permission  to  raise  volun 
teers  and  select  their  officers.  In  ninety  days  he 
enlisted  in  New  England  6000  men,  appointed 
officers  who  were  all  Democrats,  and  then  called 
on  the  President  before  sailing  for  Ship  Island, 
toward  the  end  of  February.  Lincoln  asked  him 
not  to  interfere  with  the  slavery  question,  as  Fre 
mont  had  done,  "and  as  your  man  Phelps  has 
been  doing  on  Ship  Island." 

"  May  I  not  arm  the  negroes  ? " 

"  Not  yet.     Not  yet." 

"Jackson  did." 

"  But  not  to  fight  against  their  masters,  but 
with  them." 

By  spring,  however,  General  Hunter  had  organ 
ized  a  negro  regiment,  and  by  July  Lincoln  was 
ready  to  sign  a  bill  permitting  the  enlistment  of 
slaves  of  rebel  owners ;  although  to  lessen  the  rage 
in  the  border  states  he  delayed  action  under  it  for 
some  time.  He  worked  hard  with  members  of 
Congress  from  the  border  states,  to  try  to  win 
them  to  his  pet  doctrines  of  compensation  and 
colonization,  but  with  little  or  no  result. 


266  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

This  was  one  of  the  gloomiest  periods  of  the 
war,  and  the  President  hardly  dared  tell  the  coun 
try  what  was  needed.  On  June  28  he  wrote  to 
Seward :  — 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  My  view  of  the  present  condition  of 
the  war  is  about  as  follows  :  — 

"The  evacuation  of  Corinth  and  our  delay  by  the  flood 
in  the  Chickahominy  have  enabled  the  enemy  to  concen 
trate  too  much  force  in  Richmond  for  McClellan  to  suc 
cessfully  attack.  In  fact  there  soon  will  be  no  substantial 
rebel  force  anywhere  else.  But  if  we  send  all  the  force 
from  here  to  McClellan,  the  enemy  will,  before  we  can 
know  of  it,  send  a  force  from  Richmond  and  take  Wash 
ington.  Or  if  a  large  part  of  the  Western  army  be  brought 
here  to  McClellan  they  will  let  us  have  Richmond,  and 
retake  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  etc.  What  should 
be  done  is  to  hold  what  we  have  in  the  West,  open  the 
Mississippi,  and  take  Chattanooga  and  East  Tennessee 
without  more.  A  reasonable  force  should  in  every  event 
be  kept  about  Washington  for  its  protection.  Then  let  the 
country  give  us  a  hundred  thousand  new  troops  in  the 
shortest  possible  time,  which,  added  to  McClellan  directly 
or  indirectly,  will  take  Richmond  without  endangering 
any  other  place  which  we  now  hold,  and  will  substan 
tially  end  the  war.  I  expect  to  maintain  this  contest 
until  successful,  or  till  I  die,  or  am  conquered,  or  my 
term  expires,  or  Congress  or  the  country  forsake  me ; 
and  I  would  publicly  appeal  to  the  country  for  this  new 
force  were  it  not  that  I  fear  a  general  panic  and  stam 
pede  would  follow,  so  hard  it  is  to  have  a  thing  under 
stood  as  it  really  is.'1 


THE   NEW  PRESIDENT'S   TACT  267 

Under  date  of  July  i,  300,000  volunteers  were 
called  for,  and  on  July  3  Lincoln  wrote  a  "confi 
dential  and  private  "  letter  to  the  governors,  say 
ing,  among  other  things, "  If  I  had  50,000  additional 
troops  here  now,  I  believe  I  could  substantially 
close  the  war  in  two  weeks." 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER   XII 

DARK    DAYS  :     EMANCIPATION 

THIS  summer  of  1862  marks  the  beginning  of 
the  gloomiest  year  which  the  President  had  to 
meet.  From  a  military  and  from  a  political 
point  of-  view  the  outlook  was  almost  equally 
dark,  and  in  his  family  life  Lincoln  had  been  suf 
fering  from  the  loss  of  a  little  son,  who  died  in 
the  winter.  More  than  one  observer  felt  that  his 
face  grew  suddenly  older.  Foreign  affairs  were 
still  threatening.  Volunteering  had  so  nearly 
stopped  that  compulsory  military  service  was  a 
necessity.  McClellan,  after  considerable  fighting, 
had  intrenched  himself  on  the  James  River,  where 
he  seemed  likely  to  accomplish  nothing,  complain 
ing  that  he  had  but  50,000  men  left  with  their 
colors,  and  that  he  needed  100,000  more.  Lincoln 
went  down  himself  to  Harrison's  Landing  to  see 
where  the  army  of  160,000  men  had  gone.  He 
concluded  that  sending  troops  to  McClellan  was 
about  as  effective  as  shovelling  fleas  across  a 
barn,  so  few  of  them  arrived.  He  also  decided 

268 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  269 

that  the  military  efforts  had  been  futile  enough 
to  make  an  experiment  in  emancipation  wise  as 
a  war  measure,  and  it  is  said  that  he  drew  up  the 
first  draft  of  a  proclamation  on  his  return.  Still, 
he  hated  to  relinquish  his  idea  of  compensated 
emancipation,  and  kept  trying  to  get  it  started  in 
spite  of  the  lack  of  interest  shown  by  the  border 
states  in  his  scheme.  They  were  either  hostile 
or  indifferent.  Bates  and  Blair,  the  border  mem 
bers  of  the  cabinet,  were  friendly,  but  lukewarm 
and  sceptical.  Meantime,  the  abolitionists  were 
howling  constantly  for  universal  emancipation. 
Shrewd  politicians  were  warning  the  President 
that  such  a  step  would  lose  many  Northern 
states  to  the  Republican  party.  To  a  com 
mittee  of  clergymen  who  called  to  argue  in  favor 
of  a  proclamation  Lincoln  said  it  would  be  about 
as  effective  as  the  Pope's  bull  against  the  comet. 
He  knew  that  it  could  mean  nothing  unless  it 
was  followed  by  Union  victory,  and  he  feared 
that  it  might  lose  support  in  the  border  states 
and  cause  desertions  in  the  army.  At  the  same 
time  the  omens  were  so  dark  that  he  was  less 
settled  against  a  step  which  so  many  thought 
meant  salvation.  This  was  one  of  the  problems 
which  led  him  half  in  earnest  to  suggest  his  res 
ignation,  a  proposition  which  he  made  more  than 
once  in  these  hopeless  days.  To  some  senators 
who  wished  to  muster  slaves  into  the  army  he 


270  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

said :  "  Gentlemen,  I  have  put  two  hundred  thou 
sand  muskets  into  the  hands  of  loyal  citizens  of 
Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  western  North  Caro 
lina.  They  have  said  they  could  defend  them 
selves,  if  they  had  guns.  I  have  given  them  the 
guns.  Now,  these  men  do  not  believe  in  mus 
tering  in  the  negro.  If  I  do  it,  these  two  hun 
dred  thousand  muskets  will  be  turned  against  us. 
We  should  lose  more  than  we  should  gain." 

At  a  meeting  July  22,  however,  he  told  his 
cabinet  that  he  had  called  them  merely  for  ad 
vice  about  a  step  on  which  he  was  already  deter 
mined,  which  was  emancipation  by  proclamation. 
The  principal  suggestion  came  from  Seward,  who 
said  that  if  the  step  was  taken  after  such  reverses 
and  in  so  depressed  a  time,  the  public  would  look 
upon  it  as  the  last  measure  of  an  exhausted  gov 
ernment.  "  His  idea,"  Lincoln  is  quoted  as  say 
ing,  "was  that  it  would  be  considered  our  last 
shriek,  on  the  retreat."  Lincoln,  who  had  al 
ready  had  the  same  idea,  at  least  at  times,  there 
fore  put  his  draft  aside,  touching  it  up  now  and 
then,  adding  or  changing  a  line,  and  waiting. 

His  tone  in  these  dismal  weeks  is  firm  and 
gloomy.  To  a  preacher  who  objected  to  the 
presence  of  the  Union  army  in  Louisiana,  Lin 
coln  wrote :  — 

"  I  distrust  the  wisdom  if  not  the  sincerity  of  friends 
who  would  hold  my  hands  while  my  enemies  stab  me. 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  271 

This  appeal  of  professed  friends  has  paralyzed  me 
more  in  this  struggle  than  any  other  one  thing.  You 
remember  telling  me,  the  day  after  the  Baltimore  mob 
in  April,  1861,  that  it  would  crush  all  Union  feeling  in 
Maryland  for  me  to  attempt  bringing  troops  over  Mary 
land  soil  to  Washington.  I  brought  the  troops  notwith 
standing,  and  yet  there  was  Union  feeling  enough  left 
to  elect  a  legislature  the  next  autumn,  which  in  turn 
elected  a  very  excellent  Union  United  States  senator ! 
I  am  a  patient  man  —  always  willing  to  forgive  on  the 
Christian  terms  of  repentance,  and  also  to  give  ample 
time  for  repentance.  Still,  I  must  save  this  govern 
ment,  if  possible.  What  I  cannot  do,  of  course,  I  will 
not  do ;  but  it  may  as  well  be  understood,  once  for  all, 
that  I  shall  not  surrender  this  game  leaving  any  availa 
ble  card  unplayed." 

In  another  letter  to  Louisiana  he  says :  — 

"  He  even  thinks  it  injurious  to  the  Union  cause  that 
they  should  be  restrained  in  trade  and  passage  without 
taking  sides.  They  are  to  touch  neither  a  sail  nor 
a  pump,  but  to  be  merely  passengers  —  deadheads  at 
that  —  to  be  carried  snug  and  dry  throughout  the  storm, 
and  safely  landed  right  side  up.  Nay,  more :  even  a 
mutineer  is  to  go  untouched,  lest  these  sacred  passen 
gers  receive  an  accidental  wound.  Of  course  the  re 
bellion  will  never  be  suppressed  in  Louisiana  if  the 
professed  Union  men  there  will  neither  help  to  do  it 
nor  permit  the  government  to  do  it  without  their  help." 

He  then  suggests  that  the  Union  men  in  Lou 
isiana  restore  the  national  authority,  and  adds :  — 


2/2  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"If  they  will  not  do  this  —  if  they  prefer  to  hazard 
all  for  the  sake  of  destroying  the  government,  it  is  for 
them  to  consider  whether  it  is  probable  I  will  surrender 
the  government  to  save  them  from  losing  all.  If  they 
decline  what  I  suggest,  you  scarcely  need  to  ask  what 
I  will  do.  What  would  you  do  in  my  position  ?  Would 
you  drop  the  war  where  it  is  ?  Or  would  you  prosecute 
it  in  future  with  elder-stalk  squirts  charged  with  rose- 
water  ?  Would  you  deal  lighter  blows  rather  than  heav 
ier  ones  ?  Would  you  give  up  the  contest,  leaving  any 
available  means  unapplied  ?  I  am  in  no  boastful  mood. 
I  shall  not  do  more  than  I  can,  and  I  shall  do  all  I  can, 
to  save  the  government,  which  is  my  sworn  duty  as 
well  as  my  personal  inclination.  I  shall  do  nothing  in 
malice.  What  I  deal  with  is  too  vast  for  malicious 
dealing." 

To  Augustus  Belmont  he  wrote :  — 

"  Broken  eggs  cannot  be  mended ;  but  Louisiana 
has  nothing  to  do  now  but  to  take  her  place  in  the 
Union  as  it  was,  barring  the  already  broken  eggs. 
The  sooner  she  does  so,  the  smaller  will  be  the  amount 
of  that  which  will  be  past  mending.  This  govern 
ment  cannot  much  longer  play  a  game  in  which  it 
stakes  all,  and  its  enemies  stake  nothing.  Those 
enemies  must  understand  that  they  cannot  experi 
ment  for  ten  years  trying  to  destroy  the  govern 
ment,  and  if  they  fail  still  come  back  into  the  Union 
unhurt." 

The  next  dramatic  incident  came  August 
20,  when  military  reverses  left  the  President 


DARK    DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  273 

seemingly  further  away  than  ever  from  issuing 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  Horace  Gree- 
ley  printed  a  signed  editorial  in  his  paper,  with 
the  modest  title  of  "  The  Prayer  of  20,000,000," 
giving  harsh  expressions  to  the  abolitionist 
point  of  view.  Lincoln  was  probably  glad  of 
the  opportunity  to  state  his  views,  which  he 
did  in  an  answer  that  undoubtedly  strengthened 
him  with  the  country.  He  did  not  confide  to 
Mr.  Greeley  that  the  document  was  already 
drawn.  He  simply  gave  the  strongest  possible 
expression  to  his  policy.  The  central  passage  is : 

"  I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  the 
shortest  way  under  the  Constitution.  The  sooner  the 
national  authority  can  be  restored  the  nearer  the  Union 
will  be  the  Union  as  it  was.  If  there  be  those  who 
would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same 
time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  If  there 
be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they 
could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree 
with  them.  My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is 
to  save  the  Union,  and  is  not  either  to  save  or  to  de 
stroy  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  free 
ing  any  slaves,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save 
it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would 
also  do  that.  What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored 
race,  I  do  because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union ; 
and  what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe 
it  would  help  to  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less  when- 


2/4  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

ever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause, 
and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  shall  believe  doing 
more  will  help  the  cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors 
when  shown  to  be  errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views 
so  fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true  views." 

Horace  Greeley  is  reported  by  a  friend  to 
have  said,  after  reading  his  reply,  that  Lincoln 
had  prepared  it  in  advance  and  merely  took 
that  opportunity  to  get  his  views  before  the 
public.  "  Sub  rosa,  I  can't  trust  your  '  honest 
old  Abe,'"  said  the  unsatisfied  Greeley,  "he  is 

too  smart  for  me.  He  thinks  me  a  d d  fool ; 

but  I  am  never  fooled  twice  by  the  same  in 
dividual."  So  the  Tribune  continued  to  growl, 
while  Lincoln  kept  on  waiting  for  a  victory. 

Just  after  his  trip  of  inspection  to  Harrison's 
Landing,  the  President,  on  July  1 1,  had  appointed 
General  Halleck  General-in-Chief,  and  General 
Pope,  who  had  won  some  success  in  the  West, 
had  already  been  put  at  the  head  of  the  new 
"  Army  of  Virginia,"  made  by  uniting  the  corps 
of  Fremont,  McDowell,  and  Banks,  although  a 
little  while  before  the  President  had  refused 
him  promotion  on  the  ground  that  "major- 
generalships  in  the  regular  army  are  not  as 
plenty  as  blackberries."  On  the  advice  of  these 
two  generals,  Lincoln  recalled  McClellan  from 
the  Peninsula,  where  he  was  talking  about  an 
other  advance  on  Richmond.  Pope  and  Banks 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  275 

were  badly  outgeneralled  by  Lee  and  Jackson, 
and  the  Union  army  suffered  several  defeats, 
culminating  in  the  second  Bull  Run.  Wash 
ington  and  the  North  were  terrified.  Halleck 
telegraphed  to  the  man  who  had  been  deposed 
in  his  favor,  "  I  beg  of  you  to  assist  me  in 
this  crisis,  with  your  ability  and  experience." 
Pope  had  been  proved  incompetent.  Lincoln 
saw  but  one  thing  to  do,  and  without  consult 
ing  a  single  soul  he  did  it.  Although  the  public 
was  hostile  to  McClellan,  although  the  Secretary 
of  War  detested  him,  his  organizing  skill  was 
again  needed,  and  the  President  decided  to  use 
it. 

When  the  cabinet  met  on  September  2, 
Stanton  came  in  and  said  in  great  excitement 
he  had  just  learned  from  General  Halleck  that 
McClellan  had  been  placed  by  the  President  in 
command  of  the  forces  in  Washington.  Lin 
coln  soon  entered.  Chase  asked  if  the  story 
was  true.  The  President  said  it  was.  Several 
members  showed  regret,  and  Stanton  remarked 
that  no  such  order  had  issued  from  the  War 
Department.  The  President  remarked  that  the 
order  was  his.  He  then  explained.  The  army 
and  the  whole  country  were  demoralized,  and 
something  must  be  done.  Who  else  could  so 
well  reorganize  the  shattered  army  ?  If  the 
Secretary  of  War  or  any  other  member  could 


276  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

name  a  general  as  fit  for  this  task  he  would 
appoint  him.  As  a  fighting  general  he  ad 
mitted  McClellan  was  a  failure.  He  had  the 
"slows."  He  had  never  been  ready  for  battle, 
and  probably  never  would  be.  Now,  however, 
organization  and  defence  were  needed,  and  he 
was  the  best  man  in  the  country  for  that.  After 
a  long  and  patient  talk  most  of  the  members 
were  reconciled,  but  Chase  said  he  feared  the 
reinstatement  would  prove  a  national  calamity. 
After  a  few  days  spent  in  organization,  Mc 
Clellan  was  sent  off  to  meet  Lee,  who  suddenly 
threatened  an  invasion  of  Maryland.  By  slow 
ness,  the  Northern  general  allowed  his  opponent 
to  concentrate  his  forces,  and  then,  when  the 
battle  of  Antietam  was  finally  fought  Septem 
ber  1 7,  McClellan,  with  almost  twice  as  many  men, 
allowed  Lee  to  go  away  without  pursuit.  Lin 
coln  had  been  telegraphing  McClellan  several 
days  before  not  to  let  Lee  get  off  without  being 
hurt,  and  to  destroy  his  army  if  possible,  but  it 
was  in  vain.  McClellan  thought  his  well-fed 
troops  in  no  condition  to  follow  the  ragged  South 
erners.  Still,  Antietam  was  technically  a  victory, 
discouragingly  indecisive  as  it  was,  and  the  Presi 
dent  decided  to  use  it  as  an  excuse  for  the  great 
step  of  emancipation.  The  memorable  cabinet 
meeting  is  best  described  in  the  entry  in  Sec 
retary  Chase's  diary :  — 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  277 

"MONDAY,  September  22,  1862. 

"  To  department  about  9.  State  Department  mes 
senger  came  with  notice  to  heads  of  departments  to  meet 
at  12.  Received  sundry  callers.  Went  to  White  House. 
All  the  members  of  the  cabinet  were  in  attendance. 
There  was  a  general  talk  ;  and  the  President  mentioned 
that  Artemus  Ward  had  sent  him  his  book.  Proposed 
to  read  a  chapter  which  he  thought  very  funny.  Read 
it,  and  seemed  to  enjoy  it  very  much;  the  heads  also 
(except  Stanton),  of  course.  The  chapter  was  '  High- 
Handed  Outrage  at  Utica.' 

"  The  President  then  took  a  graver  tone  and  said :  — 
"  '  Gentlemen :  I  have,  as  you  are  aware,  thought  a 
great  deal  about  the  relation  of  this  war  to  slavery  ;  and 
you  all  remember  that,  several  weeks  ago,  I  read  to  you 
an  order  I  had  prepared  on  this  subject,  which,  on  ac 
count  of  objections  made  by  some  of  you,  was  not 
issued.  Ever  since  then  my  mind  has  been  much  oc 
cupied  with  this  subject,  and  I  have  thought,  all  along, 
that  the  time  for  acting  on  it  might  probably  come.  I 
think  the  time  has  come  now.  I  wish  it  was  a  better 
time.  I  wish  that  we  were  in  a  better  condition.  The 
action  of  the  army  against  the  rebels  has  not  been 
quite  what  I  should  have  best  liked.  But  they  have 
been  driven  out  of  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania  is  no 
longer  in  danger  of  invasion.  When  the  rebel  army 
was  at  Frederick  I  determined,  as  soon  as  it  should  be 
driven  out  of  Maryland,  to  issue  a  proclamation  of 
emancipation,  such  as  I  thought  most  likely  to  be  use 
ful.  I  said  nothing  to  any  one ;  but  I  made  the  prom 
ise  to  myself  and  (hesitating  a  little)  to  my  Maker. 
The  rebel  army  is  now  driven  out,  and  I  am  going  to 
fulfil  that  promise.  I  have  got  you  together  to  hear 


2/8  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

what  I  have  written  down.  I  do  not  wish  your  advice 
about  the  main  matter ;  for  that  I  have  determined  for 
myself.  This  I  say  without  intending  anything  but 
respect  for  any  of  you.  But  I  already  know  the  views 
of  each  on  this  question.  They  have  been  heretofore 
expressed,  and  I  have  considered  them  as  thoroughly 
and  carefully  as  I  can.  What  I  have  written  is  that 
which  my  reflections  have  determined  me  to  say.  If 
there  is  anything  in  the  expressions  I  use,  or  in  any 
minor  matter,  which  any  one  of  you  thinks  had  best  be 
changed,  I  shall  be  glad  to  receive  the  suggestions. 
One  other  observation  I  will  make.  I  know  very  well 
that  many  others  might,  in  this  matter  as  in  others,  do 
better  than  I  can  ;  and  if  I  was  satisfied  that  the  public 
confidence  was  more  fully  possessed  by  any  one  of 
them  than  by  me,  and  knew  of  any  constitutional  way 
in  which  he  could  be  put  in  my  place,  he  should  have 
it.  I  would  gladly  yield  it  to  him.  But,  though  I  believe 
that  I  have  not  so  much  of  the  confidence  of  the  people 
as  I  had,  some  time  since,  I  do  not  know  that,  all  things 
considered,  any  other  person  has  more ;  and  however 
this  may  be,  there  is  no  way  in  which  I  can  have  any 
other  man  put  where  I  am.  I  am  here.  I  must  do  the 
best  I  can,  and  bear  the  responsibility  of  taking  the 
course  which  I  feel  I  ought  to  take/  ' 

It  was  only  a  few  days  before  this  meeting  that 
Lincoln  had  told  the  ministers  he  did  "  not  want 
to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world  will  see 
must  necessarily  be  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's 
bull  against  the  comet."  To  the  same  men  he 
had  said:  — 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  279 

"  I  admit  that  slavery  is  the  root  of  the  rebellion,  or 
at  least  its  sine  qua-  non.  The  ambition  of  politicians 
may  have  instigated  them  to  act,  but  they  would  have 
been  impotent  without  slavery  as  their  instrument.  I 
will  also  concede  that  emancipation  would  help  us  in 
Europe,  and  convince  them  that  we  are  incited  by  some 
thing  more  than  ambition.  I  grant,  further,  that  it 
would  help  somewhat  at  the  North,  though  not  so  much, 
I  fear,  as  you  and  those  you  represent  imagine.  Still, 
some  additional  strength  would  be  added  in  that  way  to 
the  war,  and  then,  unquestionably,  it  would  weaken  the 
rebels  by  drawing  off  their  laborers,  which  is  of  great 
importance ;  but  I  am  not  so  sure  we  could  do  much 
with  the  blacks.  If  we  were  to  arm  them,  I  fear  that 
in  a  few  weeks  the  arms  would  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
rebels ;  and,  indeed,  thus  far  we  have  not  had  arms 
enough  to  equip  our  white  troops.  I  will  mention  an 
other  thing,  though  it  meet  only  your  scorn  and  con 
tempt.  There  are  fifty  thousand  bayonets  in  the  Union 
armies  from  the  border  slave  states.  It  would  be  a 
serious  matter  if,  in  consequence  of  a  proclamation  such 
as  you  desire,  they  should  go  over  to  the  rebels.  I  do 
not  think  they  all  would  —  not  so  many,  indeed,  as  a 
year  ago,  or  as  six  months  ago  —  not  so  many  to-day  as 
yesterday.  Every  day  increases  their  Union  feeling. 
They  are  also  getting  their  pride  enlisted,  and  want  to 
beat  the  rebels.  Let  me  say  one  thing  more ;  I  think 
you  should  admit  that  we  already  have  an  important 
principle  to  rally  and  unite  the  people,  in  the  fact  that 
constitutional  government  is  at  stake.  This  is  a  funda 
mental  idea  going  down  about  as  deep  as  anything. 

"Do  not  misunderstand  me  because  I  have  mentioned 
these  objections.  They  indicate  the  difficulties  that 


280  ABRAHAM    LIiNCOLN 

have  thus  far  prevented  my  action  in  some  such  way  as 
you  desire.  I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclamation 
of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under  ad 
visement  ;  and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is  on 
my  mind,  by  day  and  night,  more  than  any  other. 
Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do." 

To  Hannibal  Hamlin  he  wrote  a  few  days  after 
the  publication  in  the  newspapers :  — 

"  It  is  known  to  some  that  while  I  hope  something 
from  the  proclamation,  my  expectations  are  not  as  san 
guine  as  are  those  of  some  friends.  The  time  for  its 
effect  southward  has  not  come  ;  but  northward  the  effect 
should  be  instantaneous. 

"  It  is  six  days  old,  and  while  commendation  in  news 
papers  and  by  distinguished  individuals  is  all  that  a 
vain  man  could  wish,  the  stocks  have  declined,  and 
troops  come  forward  more  slowly  than  ever.  This, 
looked  soberly  in  the  face,  is  not  very  satisfactory.  We 
have  fewer  troops  in  the  field  at  the  end  of  the  six  days 
than  we  had  at  the  beginning  —  the  attrition  among  the 
old  outnumbering  the  addition  by  the  new.  The  North 
responds  to  the  proclamation  sufficiently  in  breath ;  but 
breath  alone  kills  no  rebels." 

The  immediate  political  consequences  of  this 
step  were  unpromising.  The  emancipation  was 
not  to  be  made  until  January  i,  but  this  prelimi 
nary  proclamation  declared  that  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  in  states  in  rebellion  on  that  day  should 
be  declared  free.  Military  failure  counted  for 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  281 

much  in  the  ensuing  fall  elections,  but  it  is  gen 
erally  believed  that  the  proclamation  also  helped 
the  Democrats.  Never  had  the  President  suffered 
more  distrust.  Talk  about  the  need  of  a  Crom 
well  continued.  Influential  politicians  thought 
the  country  was  on  the  verge  of  destruction.  The 
October  elections  showed  that  even  the  people, 
Lincoln's  strongest  support,  were  not  wholly  with 
the  administration.  The  Democrats  won  heavily 
in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and  Illinois ; 
and  in  other  states,  where  the  Republicans  won, 
it  was  with  reduced  majorities.  By  November, 
however,  the  results  were  better,  and  when  the 
border  states  came  to  vote  the  outcome  was  de 
cidedly  satisfactory. 

A  trip  which  the  President  made  to  the  battle 
field  of  Antietam  served  to  bring  out  some  of  the 
intense  hostility  to  him  through  the  malicious 
stories  circulated  and  believed  in  the  North  about 
his  levity  in  the  terrible  place.  Lamon,  who  ac 
companied  Lincoln,  urged  him  later  to  deny 
some  of  these  tales.  "  No,"  said  the  philosophic 
chief,  "  in  politics  every  man  must  skin  his  own 
skunk.  These  fellows  are  welcome  to  the  hide 
of  this  one."  Still,  although  Lamon  denies  sing 
ing  any  frivolous  songs  on  the  battlefield,  he  says 
the  President  always  laughed  immoderately  when 
he  sang  this  parody  on  "  Life  on  the  Ocean 
Wave." 


282  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  Oh,  a  life  on  the  ocean  wave, 

And  a  home  on  the  rolling  deep  ! 
With  ratlins  fried  three  times  a  day 

And  a  leaky  old  berth  for  to  sleep ; 
Where  the  gray-beard  cockroach  roams, 

On  thoughts  of  kind  intent  .  .  ." 
and  so  on. 

The  rest  of  the  song  grows  coarser,  but  Lamon 
was  one  of  those  Westerners,  —  full  of  health, 
spirits,  and  a  humor  quite  without  squeamish- 
ness, —  that  Lincoln  rejoiced  in.  Another  bit 
with  which  he  used  to  rejoice  the  President  was 
"  The  Blue-Tailed  Fly,"  of  which  these  lines  are 
given  by  Lamon  as  samples :  - 

"  When  I  was  young  I  used  to  wait 
At  massa's  table,  'n'  hand  de  plate, 
An'  pass  de  bottle  when  he  was  dry, 
An'  brush  away  de  blue-tailed  fly. 

"  Ole  massa's  dead  ;  oh,  let  him  rest ! 
Dey  say  all  things  am  for  de  best ; 
But  I  can't  forget  until  I  die 
Ole  massa  an'  de  blue-tailed  fly." 

In  these  days,  when  his  burden  was  hardest, 
Lincoln  kept  himself  sane  with  humor,  from  the 
coarsest  fun  to  the  subtlest  irony,  as  he  always 
did ;  and  the  attempts  constantly  made  to  turn 
this  into  a  proof  of  callousness  are  but  one  indi 
cation  of  the  vindictive  hatred  which  was  show 
ered  upon  him.  Lamon  thinks  he  was  even 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  283 

fonder  of  the  patriotic  airs  and  songs  of  senti 
mental  nature,  as  "  Ben  Bolt,"  "  The  Sword  of 
Bunker  Hill,"  and  "The  Lament  of  the  Irish 
Emigrant."  From  the  last  come  these  lines :  — 

"  I'm  very  lonely  now,  Mary, 

For  the  poor  make  no  new  friends ; 
But,  oh,  they  love  the  better  still 

The  few  our  Father  sends  ! 
And  you  were  all  I  had,  Mary, 

My  blessing  and  my  pride ; 
There's  nothing  left  to  care  for  now, 

Since  my  poor  Mary  died." 

He  was  particularly  fond  of  this :  — 

"  I've  wandered  to  the  village,  Tom  ;    I've  sat  beneath  the  tree 
Upon  the  schoolhouse  playground,  that  sheltered  you  and  me  : 
But  none  were  left  to  greet  me,  Tom,  and  few  were  left  to  know 
Who  played  with  us  upon  the  green,  some  twenty  years  ago. 

"Nearby  the  spring,  upon  the  elm  you  know  I  cut  your  name, — 
Your  sweetheart's  just  beneath  it,  Tom  ;  and  you  did  mine  the 

same. 
Some  heartless  wretch  has  peeled  the  bark,  —  'twas  dying  sure 

but  slow, 
Just  as  she  died  whose  name  you  cut,  some  twenty  years  ago. 

"  My  lids  have  long  been  dry,  Tom,  but  tears  came  to  my  eyes  ; 
I  thought  of  her  I  loved  so  well,  those  early  broken  ties ; 
I  visited  the  old  churchyard,  and  took  some  flowers  to  strew 
Upon  the  graves  of  those  we  loved,  some  twenty  years  ago." 

The  figure  of  this  great  man  of  the  people  would 
surely  lose  much  of  its  unique  grandeur  if  white- 


284  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

washing  biographers  and  moralists  were  able  to 
smooth  away  these  striking  contrasts. 

After  Antietam  there  was  no  light  in  any  direc 
tion.  While  the  elections  were  going  against  the 
administration  in  the  most  important  Northern 
states,  McClellan  was  again  exhibiting  his  total 
inability  to  carry  on  an  offensive  campaign.  Lin 
coln  urged  him  forward  with  the  clearest,  firmest, 
and  kindest  arguments.  "  If  we  never  try,  we 
shall  never  succeed,"  he  said.  "As  we  must 
beat  him  somewhere,  or  fail  finally,  we  can  do  it, 
if  at  all,  easier  near  to  us  than  far  away."  He 
therefore  urged  McClellan  with  all  earnestness  to 
break  Lee's  communications  with  Richmond  and 
attack  him,  but  in  vain,  although  it  is  almost  im 
possible  to  understand  the  general's  dread  of 
motion.  Finally,  on  November  yth,  the  command 
of  the  army  was,  by  Lincoln's  order,  turned  over 
to  General  Burnside,  whom  he  is  said  to  have  pre 
ferred  to  Hooker  because  he  was  "  a  good  house 
keeper." 

This  was  the  end  of  McClellan.  Lincoln,  who 
had  stood  by  him  so  long,  would  stand  by  him  no 
longer.  He  was  getting  hungrier  and  hungrier 
for  the  death-grapple  between  the  armies,  and  he 
now  plunged  into  the  series  of  experiments  in 
generals  which  continued  until  a  quiet  Westerner 
gave  him  what  he  wanted.  McClellan's  own  im 
pression  of  the  President  is  less  hostile  than  it  is 


DARK   DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  285 

to  several  other  members  of  the  administration, 
Stanton  being  his  special  abhorrence.  Of  Lin 
coln's  stories,  concerning  which  he  remarks  that 
they  "  were  seldom  refined,  but  were  always  to  the 
point,"  he  relates  one  from  which  he  ought  to 
have  been  able  to  draw  some  useful  conclusions 
for  his  own  use.  In  a  telegram  to  McClellan  an 
officer  commanding  a  regiment  on  the  Upper 
Potomac  told  about  desperate  fighting  and  ended 
with  a  small  list  of  killed  and  wounded.  Lincoln 
was  reminded  of  a  man  who  instructed  his  servant 
to  touch  him  in  some  way  if  his  stones  became 
too  large.  He  was  telling  some  friends  about  a 
building  in  Europe  a  mile  and  a  half  long  and 
half  a  mile  high  when  the  servant's  foot  descended 
on  his  toe.  "  How  broad  was  the  building  ? " 
asked  one  of  the  listeners.  "  About  a  foot,"  replied 
the  narrator.  McClellan's  mind  was  given  to 
hopelessly  magnifying  difficulties,  and  nothing 
which  any  human  being  could  do  had  any  effect 
in  making  him  see  how  small  were  his  lacks  com 
pared  with  those  of  his  antagonist. 

Pettv  annoyances  were  not  wanting  as  a  varia 
tion  on  the  great  ones.  Congress  had  a  Commit 
tee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  which  investigated 
everything  and  accomplished  nothing.  Lincoln 
said  of  it  that  its  only  purpose  was  to  put  an  addi 
tional  clog  on  his  freedom  and  efficiency  of  action. 
There  were  so  many  people  crying  for  peace,  that 


286  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Emerson  said,  "  It  is  wonderful  to  behold  the 
unseasonable  senility  of  what  is  called  the  Peace 
Party."  Others  wanted  a  coup  d'etat.  Opponents 
of  the  war  abroad  said  that  the  armies  of  England, 
France,  and  Austria,  could  not  coerce  8,000,000 
of  free  people  to  come  under  the  govern 
ment.  The  cabinet  bickered.  Every  politician 
or  soldier  or  citizen  who  was  turned  off  gruffly  by 
Stanton  came  to  the  President.  Sometimes  he 
tried  to  soften  the  decrees  of  his  War  Minister, 
"  Mars,"  as  he  sometimes  called  him.  At  other 
times  he  escaped  as  adroitly  as  he  could,  alleging 
once,  when  some  one  had  appealed  from  Stanton, 
that  he  had  very  little  influence  with  this  adminis 
tration  but  expected  to  have  more  with  the  next. 
One  of  the  Secretary's  acts,  a  press  censorship, 
brought  the  newspaper  men  about  the  President's 
ears.  .  Once  when  two  of  them  in  a  passion  were 
explaining  the  annoyances  of  the  censorship,  Lin 
coln,  who  had  listened  in  a  dreamy  way,  finally 
said :  — 

"  I  don't  know  much  about  this  censorship,  but 
come  downstairs  and  I  will  show  you  the  origin 
of  one  of  the  pet  phrases  of  you  newspaper 
fellows." 

Leading  the  way  down  into  the  basement,  he 
opened  the  door  of  a  larder,  and  solemnly  pointed 
to  the  hanging  carcass  of  a  gigantic  sheep. 

"  There,"  said  he,  "  now  you  know  what  Reve- 


DARK    DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  287 

nons  a  nos  moutons  means.  It  was  raised  by 
Deacon  Buffum  at  Manchester,  up  in  New 
Hampshire.  Who  can  say,  after  looking  at  it, 
that  New  Hampshire's  only  product  is  granite  ? " 

Lincoln  was  once  asked  how  it  was  that  one 
caller  who  went  to  him  in  a  rage  came  away 
smiling.  The  President  told  about  the  farmer 
who  had  been  troubled  by  a  big  log  in  the  mid 
dle  of  his  field  but  announced  one  day  that  he 
had  got  rid  of  it.  "  How  did  you  do  it?  "  a  neigh 
bor  asked.  "  It  was  too  big  to  haul,  too  knotty 
to  split,  too  wet  and  soggy  to  burn."  The  farmer 
replied  that  if  his  questioner  would  promise  to 
keep  the  secret  he  would  divulge  it.  "  I  ploughed 
around  it."  "  I,"  continued  Lincoln,  "  ploughed 
around  Governor -,  but  it  took  me  three  mor 
tal  hours  to  do  it,  and  I  was  afraid  every  minute 
he  would  see  what  I  was  at." 

Thus  in  almost  every  month  of  Lincoln's  his 
tory  as  President  we  find  the  great  tragedies  and 
the  little  comedies,  or  the  great  comedies  and  the 
little  tragedies,  keeping  along  side  by  side.  Dur 
ing  this  particular  part  of  1862  the  next  event  of 
deep  significance  was  the  first  battle  of  the  new 
reliance.  General  Burnside  decided  upon  a  new 
plan,  an  advance  upon  Richmond  by  way  of 
Fredericksburg.  Lincoln  said  that  this  plan 
could  succeed  only  if  it  was  rapidly  executed. 
Burnside  was  so  slow  that  he  found  Lee  strongly 


288  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

intrenched,  and  was  frightfully  defeated  at  Fred- 
ericksburg  on  December  13.  Thus  one  more 
experiment  failed.  Lincoln's  fear  that  after  get 
ting  rid  of  McClellan  he  should  not  readily  do 
better  was  justified.  To  the  Democratic  Colonel 
W.  R.  Morrison  Lincoln  had  written  in  Novem 
ber,  "In  considering  military  merit,  the  world 
has  abundant  evidence  that  I  disregard  politics." 
To  Carl  Schurz  he  was  compelled  to  write  a  lit 
tle  later:  — 

"  If  I  must  discard  my  own  judgment  and  take  yours, 
I  must  also  take  that  of  others ;  and  by  the  time  I 
should  reject  all  I  should  be  advised  to  reject,  I  should 
have  none  left,  Republicans  or  others  —  not  even  your 
self.  For  be  assured,  my  dear  sir,  there  are  men  who 
have  '  heart  in  it '  that  think  you  are  performing  your 
part  as  poorly  as  you  think  I  am  performing  mine.  I 
certainly  have  been  dissatisfied  with  the  slowness  of 
Buell  and  McClellan ;  but  before  I  relieved  them  I  had 
great  fears  I  should  not  find  successors  to  them  who 
would  do  better ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  add  that  I  have  seen 
little  since  to  relieve  those  fears. 

"  I  do  not  clearly  see  the  prospect  of  any  more  rapid 
movements.  I  fear  we  shall  at  last  find  out  that  the 
difficulty  is  in  our  case  rather  than  in  particular  gen 
erals.  I  wish  to  disparage  no  one  —  certainly  not  those 
who  sympathize  with  me ;  but  I  must  say  I  need  suc 
cess  more  than  I  need  sympathy,  and  that  I  have  not 
seen  the  so  much  greater  evidence  of  getting  success 
from  my  sympathizers  than  from  those  who  are  de- 


DARK    DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  289 

nounced  as  the  contrary.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  in 
the  field  the  two  classes  have  been  very  much  alike  in 
what  they  have  done  and  what  they  have  failed  to  do. 
In  sealing  their  faith  with  their  blood,  Baker  and  Lyon 
and  Bohlen  and  Richardson,  Republicans,  did  all  that 
men  could  do ;  but  did  they  any  more  than  Kearny  and 
Stevens  and  Reno  and  Mansfield,  none  of  whom  were 
Republicans,  and  some  at  least  of  whom  have  been  bit 
terly  and  repeatedly  denounced  to  me  as  secession  sym 
pathizers  ?  I  will  not  perform  the  ungrateful  task  of 
comparing  cases  of  failure." 

Nobody  could  have  been  moved  more  solely 
by  the  desire  to  select  the  best  men,  and  yet  the 
President  seemed  for  a  long  time  unable  to  find 
any  one  competent  to  meet  the  Confederate 
leaders  in  the  East.  Burnside  was  soon  dropped, 
immediately  through  differences  with  his  subor 
dinates,  and  "  Fighting  Joe "  Hooker  took  his 
place. 

Toward  the  end  of  1862  matters  in  the  cabi 
net  reached  their  greatest  tension.  Seward, 
through  his  conservatism,  was  making  enemies, 
but  the  President  knew  his  Secretary's  value  too 
well  to  be  shaken.  Chase  was  also  doinof  excel- 

o 

lent  service  in  his  department,  but  he  was  vain, 
dissatisfied,  extremely  radical  about  slavery,  fond 
of  making  trouble,  disdainful  and  hostile  toward 
Lincoln  and  Seward.  The  Senate  was  so  hostile 
to  Seward  that  a  caucus  voted  to  demand  his 


290  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

dismissal.  This  decision  was  so  far  modified 
that  instead  a  committee  was  instructed  to  pre 
sent  to  the  President  resolutions  requesting  him 
to  reconstruct  the  cabinet.  Reporting  this  in 
terview,  Lincoln  afterward  said,  "  While  they 
seemed  to  believe  in  my  honesty,  they  also  ap 
peared  to  think  that  when  I  had  in  me  any  good 
purpose  or  intention  Seward  contrived  to  suck  it 
out  of  me  unperceived."  At  the  time,  he  merely 
asked  the  committee  to  meet  him  in  the  evening. 
Meantime,  he  laid  the  whole  matter  frankly  before 
his  cabinet,  explaining  that  he  did  not  mean  to 
intimate  a  desire  for  the  resignation  of  any  of 
them,  and  requested  them  to  meet  again  in  the 
evening.  Seward  stayed  away.  Having  brought 
the  cabinet  and  the  committee  together,  Lincoln 
required  a  frank  statement  of  the  views  of  both 
sides.  The  final  result  of  the  complaints  was  that 
both  Seward  and  Chase  resigned.  This  outcome 
delighted  Lincoln,  who  valued  Seward  highly.  He 
knew  of  Chase's  wire-pulling  against  the  Secretary 
of  State,  and  yet  felt  the  difficulty  of  resisting  the 
immense  opposition  to  Seward.  The  President 
was  now  able,  by  declining  to  accept  either  resig 
nation,  to  seem  impartial  between  the  two  ele 
ments  in  his  party,  whereas  had  he  not  succeeded 
in  getting  Chase's  resignation  at  the  same  time, 
a  refusal  to  accept  Seward's  would  have  identified 
him  with  one  wing.  After  it  was  all  over,  and 


DARK    DAYS:    EMANCIPATION  291 

the  two  Secretaries  were  back  in  the  cabinet, 
Lincoln  said  to  a  friend,  "  Now  I  can  ride  ;  I  have 
got  a  pumpkin  in  each  bag."  Later  he  said,  as 
recorded  in  Mr.  Hay's  diary :  "If  I  had  yielded 
to  that  storm  and  dismissed  Seward,  the  thing 
would  all  have  slumped  over  one  way,  and  we 
should  have  been  left  with  a  scanty  handful  of 
supporters.  When  Chase  gave  in  his  resignation, 
I  saw  that  the  game  was  in  my  hands,  and  I  put 
it  through." 

A  few  days  after  this  Lincoln  took  his  great 
final  step  of  emancipation,  not  without  fears.  To 
a  visitor  a  little  while  before  he  said :  "  As  for  the 
negroes,  Doctor,  and  what  is  going  to  become  of 
them:  I  told  Ben  Wade  the  other  day,  that  it 
made  me  think  of  a  story  I  read  in  one  of  my 
first  books,  yEsop's  Fables.  It  was  an  old  edi 
tion,  and  had  curious  rough  woodcuts,  one  of 
which  showed  four  white  men  scrubbing  a  negro 
in  a  potash  kettle  filled  with  cold  water.  The 
text  explained  that  the  men  thought  that  by 
scrubbing  the  negro  they  might  make  him  white. 
Just  about  the  time  they  thought  they  were  suc 
ceeding,  he  took  cold  and  died.  Now,  I  am 
afraid  that  by  the  time  we  get  through  this  war 
the  negro  will  catch  cold  and  die." 

On  the  afternoon  of  January  i,  with  some  half 
jocose  remarks  about  the  trembling  of  his  hand, 
he  signed  the  document  which  formally  declared 


292  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

all  slaves  in  the  rebellious  states  forever  free  and 
added  that  they  would  be  received  into  the  armed 
service  of  the  United  States.  At  the  sugges 
tion  of  Secretary  Chase,  the  President  invoked 
"  the  gracious  favor  of  the  Almighty  God." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

POLITICS    AND    WAR 

Two  good  effects  of  the  Emancipation  Procla 
mation  were  immediately  seen,  —  a  slightly  more 
favorable  European  attitude  and  a  greater  use 
of  negro  troops,  which  was  found  to  have  com 
paratively  little  effect  on  the  soldiers  from  the 
border  states.  Never,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
"  Copperheadism,"  or  lukewarmness  approaching 
Southern  sympathy,  been  so  bad  in  the  North. 
In  dealing  with  Copperheads  the  President 
showed  tact  equal  to  his  skilful  manipulation  of 
the  border  states.  The  army,  too,  required  all 
his  gentle  but  clear-cut  insight.  Compulsory 
service  had  now  to  be  resorted  to,  and  the  result 
was  a  lowering  of  the  average  character  of  the 
soldiers  and  a  great  bickering  among  the  states, 
each  trying  to  avoid  its  quota,  with  many  charges 
of  partisanship  against  the  administration.  More 
over,  there  were  defeats  and  no  great  victories, 
the  struggle  was  long  and  dreary,  and  the  Presi 
dent  looked  upon  the  increasing  desertions  from 
the  army  with  the  leniency  of  sympathetic  com 
prehension.  His  story  from  January  i  to  July  4, 

293 


294  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

1863,  is  one  of  patience,  tact,  kindness,  and  steady 
although  hardly  visible  progress.  At  no  time  in 
his  whole  life  does  he  show  in  complete  fulness 
more  sides  of  a  great  nature. 

To  Major  General  Dix  on  January  14  he 
wrote,  marked  "private  and  confidential,"  the 
following  :  — 

"  The  proclamation  has  been  issued.  We  were  not  suc 
ceeding  —  at  best  were  progressing  too  slowly  —  without 
it.  Now  that  we  have  it,  and  bear  all  the  disadvantages 
of  it  (as  we  do  bear  some  in  certain  quarters),  we  must 
also  take  some  benefit  from  it,  if  practicable.  I,  there 
fore,  will  thank  you  for  your  well-considered  opinion, 
whether  Fortress  Monroe  and  Yorktown,  one  or  both, 
could  not,  in  whole  or  in  part,  be  garrisoned  by  colored 
troops,  leaving  the  white  forces  now  necessary  at  those 
places  to  be  employed  elsewhere." 

Even  before  the  proclamation  had  been  issued 
the  President's  feelings  about  the  policy  of  return 
ing  slaves  had  progressed  so  far  that  he  wrote  a 
private  letter,  which  on  reflection  he  did  not  send, 
thus :  — 

"Your  despatch  of  yesterday  is  just  received.  I  be 
lieve  you  are  acquainted  with  the  American  classics  (if 
there  be  such),  and  probably  remember  a  speech  of 
Patrick  Henry  in  which  he  represented  a  certain  char 
acter  in  the  Revolutionary  times  as  totally  disregarding 
all  questions  of  country,  and  '  hoarsely  bawling,  "  Beef ! 
beef!!  beef!!!'" 


POLITICS   AND    WAR  295 

"  Do  you  not  know  that  I  may  as  well  surrender  the 
contest  directly  as  to  make  any  order  the  obvious  pur 
pose  of  which  would  be  to  return  fugitive  slaves?" 

By  March  we  find  him  writing  to  Andrew 
Johnson,  military  governor  of  Tennessee  and 
afterward  Vice-President  and  President  of  the 
United  States:  — 

"  I  am  told  you  have  at  least  thought  of  raising  a 
negro  military  force.  In  my  opinion  the  country  now 
needs  no  specific  thing  so  much  as  some  man  of  your 
ability  and  position  to  go  to  this  work.  When  I  speak 
of  your  position,  I  mean  that  of  an  eminent  citizen  of  a 
slave  state  and  himself  a  slaveholder.  The  colored 
population  is  the  great  available  and  yet  unavailed  of 
force  for  restoring  the  Union.  The  bare  sight  of  fifty 
thousand  armed  and  drilled  black  soldiers  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi  would  end  the  rebellion  at 
once ;  and  who  doubts  that  we  can  present  that  sight 
if  we  but  take  hold  in  earnest  ?  If  you  have  been  think 
ing  of  it,  please  do  not  dismiss  the  thought." 

To  General  Banks  a  few  days  later  he  says 
that  to  raise  colored  troops  is  "very  important, 
if  not  indispensable."  To  General  Hunter  he 
writes  privately  on  April  i  :  — 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  the  accounts  of  your  colored  force 
at  Jacksonville,  Florida.  I  see  the  enemy  are  driving 
at  them  fiercely,  as  is  to  be  expected.  It  is  important 
to  the  enemy  that  such  a  force  shall  not  take  shape  and 
grow  and  thrive  in  the  South,  and  in  precisely  the  same 


296  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

proportion  it  is  important  to  us  that  it  shall.  Hence 
the  utmost  caution  and  vigilance  is  necessary  on  our 
part.  The  enemy  will  make  extra  efforts  to  destroy 
them,  and  we  should  do  the  same  to  preserve  and  in 
crease  them." 

Rage  at  the  South  over  the  use  of  negro  troops 
was  unbounded.  In  1862  Jefferson  Davis  had 
declared  Generals  Hunter  and  Butler,  and  their 
commissioned  officers,  outlaws,  robbers,  and  crim 
inals,  who,  if  captured,  were  not  to  be  treated  as 
prisoners  of  war  but  to  be  held  for  execution. 
When  the  proclamation  was  issued  he  extended 
this  principle  to  all  commissioned  officers  cap 
tured  in  the  territory  covered.  The  Confederate 
Secretary  of  War  wrote  to  General  Kirby  Smith 
the  suggestion  that  white  men  leading  negro 
troops  "  be  dealt  with  red-handed  on  the  field  of 
war  or  immediately  after."  Such  amenities  nat 
urally  raised  at  the  North  a  demand  for  reci 
procity.  In  the  summer  the  well-known  negro 
Frederick  Douglass,  who  was  recruiting  colored 
soldiers,  called  on  the  President  and  said  that  if 
these  troops  were  to  be  a  success  four  things 
were  necessary :  — 

1.  Colored  soldiers  must  have  the  same  pay  as 
white  soldiers. 

2.  The  government  must  compel  the  Confed 
erates  to  treat  captured  negro  soldiers  as  prison 
ers  of  war. 


POLITICS   AND   WAR  297 

3.  Brave  and  meritorious  service  should  lead 
to  promotion  precisely  as  with  white  soldiers. 

4.  If  any  negro  soldiers  were  murdered  in  cold 
blood,  the  North  should  retaliate  in  kind. 

Lincoln,  in  reply,  Douglass  tells  us,  described 
the  opposition  to  employing  black  soldiers  at  all, 
and  the  advantage  to  the  colored  race  that  would 
result  from  employment  in  defence  of  their  coun 
try.  He  regarded  it  as  an  experiment.  He  had 
with  difficulty  got  them  into  United  States  uni 
forms,  against  the  opposition  of  those  who  pro 
posed  a  different  dress,  and  that  was  something 
gained.  In  the  matter  of  pay,  also,  he  felt  that 
some  concession  must  be  made  to  prejudice ;  and 
besides  it  was  not  proved  that  the  negro  could 
make  as  good  a  soldier  as  the  white  man.  "  I 
assure  you,"  the  President  added,  however,  "  that 
in  the  end  they  shall  have  the  same  pay  as  white 
soldiers."  He  admitted  the  justice  of  the  demand 
for  promotion,  and  said  that  he  would  insist  on 
their  being  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  prison 
ers  of  war ;  but  in  regard  to  retaliation  he  said, 
with  a  quiver  in  his  voice,  "  once  begun,  I  do  not 
know  where  such  a  measure  would  stop,"  and 
added  that,  although  if  he  could  get  hold  of  the 
actual  perpetrators  of  the  crime  the  case  might 
be  different,  he  could  not  kill  the  innocent  for 
the  guilty.  He  did,  however,  after  the  summer 
victories,  order  that  "for  every  soldier  of  the 


298  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

United  States  killed  in  violation  of  the  laws  of 
the  war  a  rebel  soldier  shall  be  executed."  As  it 
turned  out,  practically  nothing  came  of  the  threats 
on  either  side. 

Toward  the  white  soldiers,  with  whom  he  pur 
posely  came  in  contact  as  much  as  possible,  his 
feelings  seemed  to  become  if  possible  kinder  as 
their  own  stability  diminished.  He  pardoned  to 
an  extent  which  drove  his  generals  and  the  Sec 
retary  of  War  into  despair.  "  If,"  he  once  said, 
"  a  man  had  more  than  one  life,  I  think  a  little 
hanging  would  not  hurt  this  one,  but  after  he  is 
once  dead  we  cannot  bring  him  back,  no  matter 
how  sorry  we  may  be,  so  the  boy  should  be  par 
doned."  General  Butler  says  that  the  President 
promised  to  let  him  execute  whomever  he  chose, 
but  did  not  keep  his  word,  frequently  giving  or 
ders  to  have  some  convicted  person  sent  to  the 
Dry  Tortugas.  The  same  general  reminded  him 
that  the  bounties  given  for  enlistment  led  to 
desertions,  so  that  the  men  could  go  home  and 
enlist  in  other  regiments,  —  and  this  practice  of 
"bounty-jumping"  soon  became  frequent. 

"  How  can  it  be  stopped  ?  "  asked  Lincoln. 

"  Shoot  every  deserter,"  said  Butler. 

"You  may  be  right,"  replied  the  President, 
"probably  are;  but  Lord  help  me,  how  can  I 
have  a  butcher's  day  every  Friday  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  ?  " 


POLITICS   AND   WAR  299 

In  a  case  of  cowardice  he  said  that  a  man  could 
not  always  control  his  legs ;  or  that  he  never  felt 
sure  he  might  not  run  away  himself  if  he  were  in 
battle.  This  was  mainly  jocose,  for  there  is  little 
doubt  of  his  personal  bravery.  General  Butler 
tells  us  that  when  Lincoln  visited  his  department 
he  rode  six  miles  within  three  hundred  yards  of 
the  enemy,  where  officers  inspected  him  through 
their  glasses,  and  he  refused  to  make  his  position 
more  safe. 

Schuyler  Colfax 1  gives  a  scene  from  the  early 
days  of  the  war.  When  Judge  Holt,  the  judge- 
advocate-general  of  the  army,  laid  the  first  case 
before  the  President  and  explained  it,  he  replied 
that  he  would  wait  a  few  days  until  he  had  more 
time  to  read  the  testimony. 

When  the  judge  read  the  next  case  Lincoln 
said,  "  I  must  put  this  by  until  I  can  settle  in  my 
mind  whether  this  soldier  can  better  serve  the 
country  dead  than  living." 

To  the  third  he  remarked  that  as  the  general 
commanding  the  brigade  would  be  in  Washing 
ton  in  a  few  days  he  would  wait  and  talk  it  over 
with  him. 

Finally  there  came  a  very  flagrant  case.  A 
soldier  in  the  crisis  of  a  battle  demoralized  his 
regiment  by  throwing  down  his  gun  and  hiding 

1  A  number  of  interesting  anecdotes  by  men  who  knew  Lincoln 
are  to  be  found  in  a  volume  of  reminiscences  edited  by  A.  T.  Rice. 


300  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

behind  a  stump.  The  court-martial  found  that 
he  had  no  dependents  and  that  he  was  a  thief, 
stealing  continually  from  his  comrades.  Judge 
Holt  remarked  that  this  man  might  meet  the 
President's  requirement  of  serving  his  country 
better  dead  than  living.  The  excuses  were  all 
gone,  but  Lincoln  said  that  any  way  he  thought 
he  would  put  it  with  his  "leg  cases."  Pointing 
to  some  pigeon-holes,  he  proceeded :  "  They  are 
cases  that  you  call  by  that  long  title,  '  Cowardice 
in  the  face  of  the  enemy,'  but  I  call  them,  for 
short,  my  leg  cases.  If  Almighty  God  has  given 
a  man  a  cowardly  pair  of  legs,  how  can  he  help 
running  away  with  them  ?  " 

Some  escaped  because  he  knew  their  fathers, 
others  because  he  liked  their  frankness,  many  for 
their  youth.  It  may  have  done  something  to  de 
stroy  discipline,  but  it  probably  did  more  good 
than  harm.  The  President  had  in  mind  the  kind 
of  citizens  who  went  into  the  army,  and  no  one 
knew  better  how  to  manage  them.  "  With  us 
every  soldier  is  a  man  of  character,"  he  wrote  to 
a  French  nobleman,  "  and  must  be  treated  with 
more  consideration  than  is  customary  in  Europe." 
His  humor,  as  always,  served  him  well.  Meeting 
a  soldier  who  considerably  surpassed  in  height  his 
own  six  feet  four,  Lincoln  examined  him  with  won 
dering  admiration,  and  finally  asked,  "  Hello,  com 
rade,  how  do  you  know  when  your  feet  get  cold  ?  " 


POLITICS   AND  WAR  301 

In  handling  the  troubles  which  grew  out  of 
compulsory  military  service  the  President  showed 
the  importance  of  politics  in  a  democracy  at  war. 
The  very  idea  of  forcing  men  to  fight  was  widely 
denounced  as  despotic  and  contrary  to  American 
institutions,  and  to  make  it  as  little  offensive  as 
possible  called  into  play  all  of  Lincoln's  adroit 
ness.  Stanton  was  always  an  obstacle  to  any  sac 
rifice  of  what  he  deemed  principle  to  what  is  now 
ironically  called  "  harmony,"  but  Lincoln  was  able 
to  use  this  obstacle  as  an  excuse  when  he  wished, 
and  to  overcome  it  when  he  chose.  General  Fry, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  this  department,  gives  an 
instance.  The  states  and  districts  tried  to  fill 
their  quotas,  and  save  their  citizens  from  being 
drafted,  by  voting  bounties  to  buy  men  wherever 
they  could  be  found.  The  agent  appointed  by  a 
county  in  one  of  the  middle  states  learned  that 
some  Confederate  prisoners  at  Chicago  were  about 
to  be  released  and  enlisted  in  the  United  States 
army  for  service  against  the  Indians  in  the  north 
west.  He  therefore  decided  to  pay  them  bounties, 
and  get  them  credited  to  his  district,  although 
they  would  do  only  what  they  were  about  to  do 
any  way.  He  then  obtained  from  the  President 
an  order  to  have  them  credited.  Stanton  refused 
to  have  the  credit  allowed.  The  agent,  who  was 
acquainted  with  Lincoln,  returned  to  him,  and  got 
him  to  repeat  the  order,  but  it  was  without  effect 


302  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  President  then  went  to  the  Secretary's  office, 
and  had  General  Fry  present  to  state  the  facts. 
Fry  said  that  these  men,  being  prisoners  of  war, 
could  not  be  used  against  the  Confederates,  and 
that,  as  they  belonged  to  the  government,  all  that 
was  needed  to  use  them  against  the  Indians  was 
their  release.  To  allow  the  bounty  and  the  credit, 
therefore,  would  merely  waste  money,  and  deprive 
the  army  of  men. 

"  Now,  Mr.  President,"  said  Stanton,  "  those  are 
the  facts,  and  you  must  see  that  your  order  can 
not  be  executed." 

"  Mr.  Stanton,"  replied  Lincoln, "  I  reckon  you'll 
have  to  execute  the  order." 

"  Mr.  President,  I  can't  do  it.  The  order  is  an 
improper  one,  and  I  cannot  execute  it." 

"  Mr.  Secretary,  it  will  have  to  be  done." 

On  a  hint  Fry  withdrew,  and  a  few  moments 
later  he  received  instructions  from  Stanton  to 
carry  out  Lincoln's  order. 

Colonel  McClure  is  the  witness  to  another  inci 
dent  that  brings  out  the  President's  methods  in 
dealing  with  the  situation  which  any  rigid  code 
might  have  ruined.  McClure,  who  was  chairman 
of  the  military  committee  of  the  Senate,  was  to 
execute  the  first  army  draft  made  in  Pennsylvania. 
Dissatisfaction  was  intense  throughout  the  state, 
and  in  Cass  Township,  Schuylkill  County,  the 
centre  of  the  criminal  band  of  "  Molly  Maguires," 


POLITICS   AND   WAR  303 

open  rebellion  was  threatened.  The  draft  was 
made  with  difficulty,  and  a  day  fixed  for  the  con 
scripts  to  take  the  cars  and  report  at  Harrisburg. 
The  criminals  not  only  refused  to  go  themselves, 
but  they  violently  drove  the  other  conscripts  from 
the  station. 

On  being  informed  of  this,  Secretary  Stanton 
replied  at  once  that  the  draft  must  be  enforced, 
and  he  put  one  Philadelphia  regiment  and  one  at 
Harrisburg  at  the  orders  of  Governor  Curtin,  with 
instructions  to  send  them  immediately  to  the  scene 
of  the  revolt.  Suggestions  were  sent  back  that 
the  situation  was  dangerously  complicated,  but 
Stanton  again  ordered  the  law  enforced  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet.  The  soldiers  started  tow 
ard  the  scene  of  the  revolt.  Curtin  gave  McClure 
orders  to  telegraph  the  whole  situation  fully,  in 
cipher,  to  Lincoln.  This  was  done  early  in  the 
day.  Night  came  and  no  reply.  When  Colonel 
McClure  entered  the  breakfast  room  at  his  hotel, 
Assistant  Attorney-General  Townsend  of  the 
United  States  army  was  seated  at  the  table.  He 
had  arrived  at  three  A.M.,  and  was  watching  for 
McClure.  He  said :  "  I  have  no  orders  to  give 
you,  but  I  came  solely  to  deliver  a  personal  mes 
sage  from  President  Lincoln  in  these  words :  '  Say 
to  McClure  that  I  am  very  desirous  to  have  the 
laws  fully  executed,  but  it  might  be  well  in  an  ex 
treme  emergency  to  be  content  with  the  appear- 


304  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

ance  of  executing  the  laws.  I  think  McClure  will 
understand.'  I  have  now  fulfilled  my  mission.  I 
do  not  know  to  what  it  relates." 

McClure  made  no  explanation  to  Townsend, 
but  summoned  Benjamin  Bannan  from  Pottsville, 
and  explained  that  in  a  number  of  cases,  after  the 
quotas  had  been  adjusted  and  the  draft  ordered, 
evidence  had  been  presented  to  prove  that  the 
quotas  had  been  filled  by  volunteers  who  had  en 
listed  in  towns  or  cities  outside  of  their  township. 
In  such  cases,  where  the  evidence  was  clear,  the 
draft  was  revoked.  By  the  next  evening  evidence 
was  secured  and  properly  endorsed,  which  made 
the  draft  in  that  district  inoperative,  and  released 
the  conscripts. 

Another  experience  related  by  the  same  poli 
tician  shows  Lincoln's  habit  of  accomplishing 
what  he  wanted.  The  conscripts  from  various 
parts  of  Pennsylvania  were  pouring  into  the  capi 
tal  by  thousands.  The  demand  for  reinforcements 
was  pressing.  The  commanding  officer  mustered 
only  about  two  companies  a  day.  McClure  tele 
graphed  Stanton  that  he  could  forward  a  regi 
ment  every  day  if  the  government  would  furnish 
the  officers  to  muster  and  organize  them.  Stan- 
ton  replied  that  it  would  be  done.  The  next  day 
a  new  officer  appeared,  but,  as  he  was  subordinate 
to  the  commandant  who  had  charge,  he  was,  after 
mustering  an  entire  regiment  the  first  day,  re- 


POLITICS   AND   WAR  305 

lieved  from  duty.  The  secret  of  the  command 
ant's  action  was  the  desire  to  make  money  out  of 
army  contracts  while  the  men  were  in  his  neigh 
borhood.  McClure,  after  telegraphing  ahead, 
went  to  see  Lincoln  in  Washington.  The  Presi 
dent  immediately  sent  for  a  major's  commission, 
and  told  McClure  to  show  it  to  the  commanding 
officer,  who  was  a  captain.  He  also  gave  him 
an  order  assigning  him  to  duty  at  Harrisburg. 
All  McClure  had  to  do  was  to  exhibit  these  docu 
ments,  and  tell  the  captain  there  must  be  a  regi 
ment  mustered  every  day.  Then  he  sent  back 
to  the  President  the  commission,  which  had 
served  its  purpose. 

On  April  13,  Lincoln  wrote  to  General 
Curtin :  — 

"  If,  after  the  expiration  of  your  present  term  as 
governor  of  Pennsylvania,  I  shall  continue  in  office 
here,  and  you  shall  desire  to  go  abroad,  you  can  do  so 
with  one  of  the  first-class  missions." 

The  meaning  of  this  was  that  it  was  feared  that 
with  Cameron's  hostility  Curtin  could  not  be 
elected  in  Pennsylvania.  There  was  not  one  of 
the  states  in  which  the  President  was  not  in  the 
closest  touch  with  the  political  situation.  On  May 
15,  he  wrote  to  certain  Missouri  politicians :  - 

"  Your  despatch  of  to-day  is  just  received.     It  is  very 
painful  to  me  that  you  in  Missouri  cannot  or  will  not 
x 


306  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

settle  your  factional  quarrel  among  yourselves.  I  have 
been  tormented  with  it  beyond  endurance  for  months 
by  both  sides.  Neither  side  pays  the  least  respect  to 
my  appeals  to  your  reason.  I  am  now  compelled  to 
take  hold  of  the  case." 

On  May  27,  he  wrote  to  General  John  M. 
Schofield  a  letter  which  explained  what  he  did 
when  he  "  took  hold  of  the  case  " :  - 

"  Having  relieved  General  Curtis  and  assigned  you 
to  the  command  of  the  department  of  the  Missouri,  I 
think  it  may  be  of  some  advantage  for  me  to  state  to 
you  why  I  did  it.  I  did  not  relieve  General  Curtis  be 
cause  of  any  full  conviction  that  he  had  done  wrong  by 
commission  or  omission.  I  did  it  because  of  a  convic 
tion  in  my  mind  that  the  Union  men  of  Missouri,  con 
stituting,  when  united,  a  vast  majority  of  the  whole 
people,  have  entered  into  a  pestilent  factional  quarrel 
among  themselves  —  General  Curtis,  perhaps  not  of 
choice,  being  the  head  of  one  faction,  and  Governor 
Gamble  that  of  the  other.  After  months  of  labor  to 
reconcile  the  difficulty,  it  seemed  to  grow  worse  and 
worse  until  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  break  it  up  somehow ; 
and  as  I  could  not  remove  Governor  Gamble,  I  had  to 
remove  General  Curtis.  Now  that  you  are  in  the  posi 
tion,  I  wish  you  to  undo  nothing  merely  because  Gen 
eral  Curtis  or  Governor  Gamble  did  it,  but  to  exercise 
your  own  judgment,  and  do  right  for  the  public  inter 
est.  Let  the  military  measures  be  strong  enough  to 
repel  the  invader  and  keep  the  peace,  and  not  so  strong 
as  to  unnecessarily  harass  and  persecute  the  people. 


POLITICS   AND  WAR  307 

It  is  a  difficult  role,  and  so  much  greater  will  be  the 
honor  if  you  perform  it  well.  If  both  factions,  or 
neither,  shall  abuse  you,  you  will  probably  be  about 
right.  Beware  of  being  assailed  by  one  and  praised  by 
the  other." 

Once,  according  to  General  Fry,  in  talking 
over  the  selection  of  brigadier  generals,  the  Presi 
dent  told  Stanton  that  he  concurred  in  pretty 
much  everything  he  had  been  saying,  but  that 
something  had  to  be  done  in  the  interest  of  the 
Dutch,  and  that  he  therefore  wished  Schmell- 
finnig  appointed.  Stanton  said  that  possibly  he 
was  not  as  highly  recommended  as  some  other 
German  officer. 

"  No  matter,"  said  Lincoln.  "  His  name  will 
make  up  for  any  difference  there  may  be, 
and  I  will  take  the  risk  of  his  coming  out  all 
right." 

In  dealing  with  the  Copperheads,  who  sprung 
up  in  unexampled  rankness  in  the  gloomy  spring 
of  '63,  the  President's  most  notable  feat  was  ac 
complished  on  one  Vallandigham,  who  made 
such  offensive  speeches  in  Ohio  that  General 
Burnside,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Cincin 
nati,  arrested  him.  A  military  tribunal  con 
victed  him,  and  the  general  approved  the  finding. 
He  was  imprisoned,  and  an  effort  to  get  him  out 
on  habeas  corpus  failed.  Lincoln's  correspon 
dence  with  Burnside  shows  a  doubt  about  the 


308  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

need  of  this  act,  combined  with  a  willingness  to 
stand  by  it.  There  was  an  immense  outcry  all 
over  the  North.  Governor  Seymour,  of  New 
York,  denounced  the  arrest  as  dishonorable  des 
potism.  He  said :  "  The  action  of  the  adminis 
tration  will  determine  in  the  minds  of  more  than 
one-half  of  the  people  of  the  loyal  states  whether 
this  war  is  waged  to  put  down  rebellion  in  the 
South,  or  to  destroy  free  institutions  in  the 
North." 

The  President  met  the  complaints  by  commu 
ting  the  sentence  in  an  original  and  adroit  man 
ner.  He  sent  him  to  the  South,  and  on  May  25 
he  was  accepted  by  a  Confederate  picket. 

Still  the  noise  continued,  and  June  n  the 
Ohio  Democrats  nominated  Vallandigham  for 
governor. 

To  some  of  the  resolutions  denouncing  the 
arrest  the  President  thought  it  best  to  reply,  and 
his  answer  to  the  New  York  Democrats  is  among 
his  ablest  and  most  famous  arguments.  A  few 
sentences  may  give  some  idea  of  its  clear  and 
logical  power :  — 

"  I  understand  the  meeting  whose  resolution  I  am 
considering  to  be  in  favor  of  suppressing  the  rebellion 
by  military  force  by  armies.  Long  experience  has 
shown  that  armies  cannot  be  maintained  unless  deser 
tion  shall  be  punished  by  the  severe  penalty  of  death. 
The  case  requires,  and  the  law  and  the  Constitution 


POLITICS    AND   WAR  309 

sanction  this  punishment.  Must  I  shoot  a  simple- 
minded  soldier  boy  who  deserts,  while  I  must  not  touch 
a  hair  of  the  wily  agitator  who  induces  him  to  desert  ? 
This  is  none  the  less  injurious  when  effected  by  getting 
a  father,  or  brother,  or  friend  into  a  public  meeting, 
and  there  working  upon  his  feelings  till  he  is  persuaded 
to  write  the  soldier  boy  that  he  is  fighting  in  a  bad  cause 
for  a  wicked  administration  of  a  contemptible  govern 
ment,  too  weak  to  arrest  and  punish  him  if  he  shall  de 
sert.  I  think  that,  in  such  a  case,  to  silence  the  agitator 
and  save  the  boy  is  not  only  constitutional,  but  withal 
a  great  mercy.  .  .  .  Nor  am  I  able  to  appreciate  the 
danger  apprehended  by  this  meeting,  that  the  American 
people  will  by  means  of  military  arrests  during  the  re 
bellion  lose  the  right  of  public  discussion,  the  liberty  of 
speech  and  the  press,  the  law  of  evidence,  trial  by  jury, 
and  habeas  corpus  throughout  the  indefinite  peaceful 
future  which  I  trust  lies  before  them,  any  more  than  I 
am  able  to  believe  that  a  man  could  contract  so  strong 
an  appetite  for  emetics  during  temporary  illness  as  to 
persist  in  feeding  upon  them  during  the  remainder  of 
his  healthful  life." 

Now  a  story  of  Lincoln's  was  about  to  have  its 
vindication  in  a  result  brought  about  by  his  argu 
ment  and  the  people's  sense.  He  told  of  the  boy 
who  was  particularly  effective  in  knocking  away 
the  last  support  when  a  vessel  was  to  be  launched, 
and  then  lying  down  while  the  vessel  passed  over 
him.  Yet  he  always  screamed  violently  during 
the  process.  He  was  not  afraid,  and  he  liked  to 
do  it,  but  his  noise  made  him  more  important. 


310  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

Vallandigham  was  defeated  by  the  people  of  Ohio 
by  over  100,000  votes. 

A  few  other  miscellaneous  features  of  these  six 
months  of  stress  add  variety  to  a  period  which 
did  so  much  to  test  this  most  thoroughly  tested 
President.  In  reference  to  privateers  he  had 
acted  with  prudence,  checking  the  desire  for 
mere  revenge  as  he  always  did,  but  Great  Brit 
ain  was  particularly  annoying  just  now  by  the 
aid  she  gave  the  South  in  preparing  vessels  to 
prey  on  commerce.  The  country  and  Congress 
were  in  a  mood  to  quarrel  with  England,  and 
still  more  in  a  mood  to  indulge  in  privateers  on 
their  own  account,  so  on  the  3d  of  March,  the 
last  day  of  the  session,  an  act  was  passed  declar 
ing,  "that  in  all  domestic  and  foreign  wars  the 
President  of  the  United  States  is  authorized  to 
issue  to  private  armed  vessels  of  the  United 
States,  commissions  or  letters-of-marque  and  gen 
eral  reprisal  in  such  form  as  he  shall  think  proper, 
and  under  the  seal  of  the  United  States,  and  make 
all  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the  govern 
ment  thereof,  and  for  the  adjudication  and  dis 
posal  of  the  prizes  and  salvages  made  by  each 
vessel  —  provided  that  the  authority  conferred 
by  this  act  shall  cease  and  terminate  at  the  end 
of  three  years  from  the  passage  of  this  act." 

The  results  of  this  fiery  move,  however,  were 
easily  escaped  by  the  administration,  which  found 


POLITICS   AND  WAR  311 

none  of  the  offers  of  privateers  proper  for  accept 
ance.  The  case  against  England  was  handled 
with  firmness  and  dignity  by  the  minister  to 
England,  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  Presi 
dent,  and  later  ended  in  full  indemnity  instead  of 
a  fatal  war.  It  was  in  this  situation  in  1863  that 
Mr.  Adams  wrote  to  Lord  Russell  his  famous 
and  effective  words.  "  This  is  war."  Offers  of 
mediation  were  also  thick  from  foreign  powers 
and  they  were  declined  with  courtesy. 

Another  aspect  of  these  times  is  suggested  in 
this  effusion  by  the  voluble  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury. 

"  Had  there  been  here  an  administration  in  the 
true  sense  of  the  word  —  a  President  conferring 
with  his  cabinet  and  taking  their  united  judg 
ments,  and  with  their  aid  enforcing  activity, 
economy,  and  energy,  in  all  departments  of  pub 
lic  service  —  we  could  have  spoken  boldly  and 
defied  the  world.  But  our  condition  here  has 
always  been  very  different.  I  preside  over  the 
funnel;  everybody  else,  and  especially  the  Secre 
taries  of  War  and  the  Navy,  over  the  spigots  — 
and  keep  them  well  open,  too.  Mr.  Seward  con 
ducts  the  foreign  relations  with  very  little  let  or 
help  from  anybody.  There  is  no  unity  and  no 
system,  except  so  far  as  it  is  departmental.  There 
is  progress,  but  it  is  slow  and  unvoluntary  —  just 
what  is  coerced  by  the  irresistible  pressure  of  the 


312  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

vast  force  of  the  people.  How  under  such  cir 
cumstances  can  anybody  announce  a  policy  which 
can  only  be  made  respectable  by  union,  wisdom, 
and  courage  ?  " 

It  was  true  that  Chase  was  allowed  to  attend 
alone  to  the  finances.  Lincoln  knew  nothing 
about  them,  and  it  was  not  his  nature  to  meddle 
with  the  unknown,  unless,  as  in  the  case  of  mili 
tary  matters,  it  was  pressed  upon  him  by  neces 
sity.  That  Chase  was  not  allowed  to  meddle  with 
the  other  departments  grieved  him  sorely.  As  to 
his  talk  about  a  "  policy  "  it  is  answered  by  Lin 
coln's  famous  frank  confession  that  he  made  no 
pretence  of  controlling  events,  but  admitted  wil 
lingly  that  they  had  controlled  him.  That  was 
his  way,  and  it  worked.  Whether  an  arbitrary 
hand  could  have  guided  the  State  as  safely  must 
remain  a  speculation.  Lowell  speaks  of  him  as 
"  avoiding  innumerable  obstacles  with  noble  bends 
of  concession,"  and  of  his  "  cautious  but  sure-footed 
understanding."  It  is  the  general  later  opinion 
that  even  if  a  less  tentative,  more  aggressive  nature 
had  succeeded  in  rapidly  crushing  the  rebellion, 
the  disease  would  have  been  less  effectively  eradi 
cated  than  it  was  by  allowing  the  people  to  be 
the  motive  force.  At  any  rate  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  President,  in  all  his  trouble,  remarked : 
"  It's  a  good  thing  for  individuals  that  there's  a 
government  to  shove  their  acts  upon.  No  man's 


POLITICS   AND   WAR  313 

shoulders  are  broad  enough  to  bear  what   must 
be." 

A  glimpse  into  one  corner  of  the  inner  life  of 
the  man  at  this  time  is  caught  through  the  fol 
lowing  telegram :  — 

"WASHINGTON,  January  9,  1863. 

"  MRS.  LINCOLN,  Philadelphia  ;  Pennsylvania. 

"  Think  you  had  better  put  Tad's  pistol  away.  I  had 
an  ugly  dream  about  him. 

"  A.  LINCOLN." 

Now,  as  always,  however,  no  matter  what  strange 
and  attractive  light  on  the  man's  nature  may  be 
thrown  by  other  aspects  of  his  activity,  the  mili 
tary  was  the  most  important  if  not  psychologi 
cally  the  most  significant  part  of  his  career.  In 
this  winter  and  spring  he  gave  a  full  trial  to  one 
more  general,  who  also  was  found  wanting.  On 
Lincoln  himself  a  flood  of  blame  for  the  army 
reverses  continually  poured.  Harpers  Weekly, 
on  January  3,  printed  a  cartoon  in  which  Co 
lumbia  confronted  the  President  and  demanded 
an  accounting  for  the  thousands  slain  at  Fred- 
ericksburg.  "  This,"  replied  Lincoln,  "  reminds 
me  of  a  little  joke."  "  Go,"  replied  the  angry 
nation,  "tell  your  joke  at  Springfield."  For  a 
later  generation  it  is  not  easy  to  realize  that  thou 
sands  actually  believed  that  the  awful  slaughter 
was  a  matter  for  coarse  Western  jests  by  the 


314  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

President.  It  was  perhaps  when  he  felt  most 
terribly  that  he  needed  his  stones  most.  Stanton 
sometimes  used  abruptly  to  leave  the  room  when 
Lincoln  began  a  tale,  and  other  members  of  the 
cabinet  would  bite  their  lips  when  he  started  one 
of  his  stories  in  the  presence  of  strangers.  They 
took  him  with  no  sense  of  humor.  He  took  them 
with  the  humorous  comprehension  of  a  Sancho 
Panza.  A  man  who  had  presented  to  Stanton  a 
certain  order  from  the  President  returned  and 
repeated  the  Secretary's  comment.  "  If,"  said 
Lincoln,  "  Stanton  said  I  was  a  damned  fool,  then 
I  must  be  one ;  for  he  is  nearly  always  right  and 
generally  says  what  he  means.  I  must  step  over 
and  see  him." 

In  February  one  of  the  cartoons  showed  P.  T. 
Barnum  presenting  Tom  Thumb  and  Commodore 
Nutt  to  the  President,  and  under  the  picture  was 
this  dialogue:  — 

The  Great  Showman  :  —  "  Mr.  President,  since  your 
military  and  naval  heroes  do  not  seem  to  get  on,  try 
mine." 

Lincoln:  —  "Well,  I  will  do  it  to  oblige  you,  friend 
Phineas,  but  I  think  mine  are  the  smallest." 

He  began  the  experiment  with  General  Hooker 
with  one  of  his  most  characteristic  messages :  — 


POLITICS   AND  WAR  315 

(Private.) 

"EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
"WASHINGTON,  D.C.  Jan.  26,  1863. 

"  MAJOR-GENERAL  HOOKER  : 

"  General:  —  I  have  placed  you  at  the  head  of  the  Army 
.of  the  Potomac.  Of  course  I  have  done  this  upon  what 
appears  to  me  sufficient  reasons  ;  and  yet  I  think  it  best 
for  you  to  know  that  there  are  some  things  in  regard  to 
which  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with  you. 

"  I  believe  you  to  be  a  brave  and  skilful  soldier,  which 
of  course  I  like.  I  also  believe  you  do  not  mix  politics 
with  your  profession,  in  which  you  are  right.  You  have 
confidence  in  yourself,  which  is  a  valuable,  if  not  indis 
pensable,  quality.  You  are  ambitious,  which,  within 
reasonable  bounds,  does  good  rather  than  harm.  But 
I  think  that  during  General  Burnside's  command  of  the 
army  you  have  taken  counsel  of  your  ambition  solely, 
and  thwarted  him  as  much  as  you  could ;  in  which  you 
did  a  great  wrong  to  the  country  and  to  a  most  merito 
rious  and  honorable  brother  officer.  I  have  heard,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  believe  it,  of  your  saying  that  both  the 
country  and  the  army  needed  a  dictator.  Of  course  it 
was  not  for  this,  but  in  spite  of  it,  that  I  have  given  you 
the  command.  Only  those  generals  who  gain  success 
can  set  themselves  up  as  dictators.  What  I  ask  of  you 
is  military  success,  and  I  will  risk  the  dictatorship.  The 
government  will  support  you  to  the  utmost  of  its  ability, 
which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  it  has  done  and  will 
do  for  all  its  commanders. 

"  I  much  fear  that  the  spirit  which  you  have  aided  to 
infuse  into  the  army,  of  criticising  their  commander  and 


316  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

withholding  confidence  from  him,  will  now  turn  upon 
you  ;  and  I  shall  assist  you  as  far  as  I  can  to  put  it  down. 
Neither  you  nor  Napoleon,  if  he  were  alive  again,  could 
get  any  good  out  of  an  army  while  such  a  spirit  prevails 
in  it. 

"  And  now,  beware  of  rashness,  but  with  energy  and 
sleepless  vigilance  go  forward  and  give  us  victories. 
"  Yours  very  truly, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Secretary  Welles  tells  us  that  the  President 
once  went  so  far  in  conversation  as  to  say  this : 
"  There  has  been  a  design,  a  purpose,  in  breaking 
down  Pope,  without  regard  to  the  consequences 
to  the  country,  —  which  is  atrocious.  It  is  shock 
ing  to  see  and  know  this,  but  there  is  no  remedy 
at  present.  McClellan  has  the  army  with  him." 
So  he  recalled  McClellan.  Now  there  was  a 
slightly  similar  situation.  He  believed  Burnside 
had  been  injured  by  jealousies,  yet  he  called  to 
the  command  one  of  the  guilty  generals  and  told 
him  to  do  his  best.  He  urged  on  him  especially 
the  importance  of  an  early  and  energetic  move 
ment  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  for  its  political 
effect  at  home  and  abroad.  Hooker  proved  effi 
cient  in  getting  the  demoralized  army  into  form, 
but  slow  to  act.  Finally  the  able  Southerners 
saw  their  opportunity.  Stonewall  Jackson,  on 
May  2,  won  the  victory  which  cost  his  life, 
and  the  next  two  days  General  Lee  inflicted  on 


POLITICS    AND   WAR  317 

Hooker  the  heavy  defeat  of  Chancellorsville,  won 
by  superior  generalship.  One  of  Hooker's  errors 
was  failing  to  use  all  of  his  men,  a  mistake 
against  which  Lincoln  had  emphatically  warned 
him.  The  President  was  learning  a  good  deal 
about  the  kind  of  mistakes  to  expect  from  his 
generals. 

Lee  now  made  his  great  error  by  deciding  to 
invade  the  North.  Hooker  wished  to  attack  the 
Confederate  rear  at  Fredericksburg,  but  Lincoln, 
who  was  afraid  of  this  plan,  made  a  famous  com 
ment : — 

"  If  he  should  leave  a  rear  force  at  Fredericksburg, 
tempting  you  to  fall  upon  it,  it  would  fight  in  intrench- 
ments  and  have*  you  at  disadvantage,  and  so,  man  for 
man,  worst  you  at  that  point,  while  his  main  force  would 
in  some  way  be  getting  an  advantage  of  you  northward. 
In  one  word,  I  would  not  take  any  risk  of  being  entan 
gled  upon  the  river,  like  an  ox  jumped  half  over  a  fence 
and  liable  to  be  torn  by  dogs  front  and  rear  without  a 
fair  chance  to  gore  one  way  or  kick  the  other." 

A  few  days  later  he  said,  in  answer  to  Hooker's 
scheme  of  advancing  upon  Richmond :  — 

"  If  left  to  me,  I  would  not  go  south  of  the  Rappa- 
hannock  upon  Lee's  moving  north  of  it.  If  you  had 
Richmond  invested  to-day,  you  would  not  be  able  to 
take  it  in  twenty  days  ;  meanwhile  your  communica 
tions,  and  with  them  your  army,  would  be  ruined.  I 


3i8  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

think  Lee's  army,  and  not  Richmond,  is  your  true  ob 
jective  point.  If  he  comes  toward  the  upper  Potomac, 
follow  on  his  flank  and  on  his  inside  track,  shortening 
your  lines  while  he  lengthens  his.  Fight  him,  too, 
when  opportunity  offers.  If  he  stays  where  he  is,  fret 
him  and  fret  him." 

Hooker  was  slow,  and  Lincoln  telegraphed :  — 

"  So  far  as  we  can  make  out  here,  the  enemy  have 
Milroy  surrounded  at  Winchester,  and  Tyler  at  Martins- 
burg.  If  they  could  hold  out  a  few  days,  could  you 
help  them  ?  If  the  head  of  Lee's  army  is  at  Mar- 
tinsburg  and  the  tail  of  it  on  the  plank  road  be 
tween  Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville,  the  animal 
must  be  very  slim  somewhere.  Could  you  not  break 
him  ? " 

The  Confederates  under  Ewell  entered  Penn 
sylvania  June  22.  Now  there  was  more  bicker 
ing  among  the  Federal  generals,  and  Lincoln 
told  Hooker  he  would  have  to  submit  to  Hal- 
leek.  Halleck  was  hostile  and  annoying  and 
Hooker  on  June  27  asked  to  be  relieved.  Gen 
eral  Meade  was  straightway  appointed,  for  which, 
among  other  reasons,  the  following  have  been 


given. 


1.  He  was    a  good  soldier,  if  not  a  brilliant 
one. 

2.  He  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  the  pres 
ent  battle-ground. 


POLITICS   AND   WAR 


319 


3.  He  was  a  Democrat,  and  the  President 
wished  to  check  a  threatened  demand  for 
McClellan's  restoration. 

A  few  days  later  came  the  turning-point  in 
the  war. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE    TURNING    OF    THE    TIDE 

AFTER  Chancellorsville  one  of  Lincoln's  private 
secretaries,  working  at  the  office  over  his  mail 
until  3  A.M.,  heard  the  President's  footfall  as  he 
left.  Returning  at  eight  o'clock  he  saw  his  chief 
still  in  the  room  eating  a  solitary  breakfast,  before 
him  the  written  instructions  to  Hooker  to  push 
forward  and  fight  again. 

A  few  weeks  later  the  President  had  a  dream. 
A  ship  passed  before  his  sleeping  vision,  sailing 
away  rapidly,  badly  damaged,  with  victorious 
Union  vessels  in  close  pursuit.  Also  there  ap 
peared  the  close  of  a  battle  on  land,  the  enemy 
routed,  our  forces  in  possession  of  a  position  im 
mensely  important.  The  same  dream  had  come 
to  him  before  Antietam.  Coming  before  Gettys 
burg  it  heralded  fortune  of  far  greater  scope. 

For  three  days  the  Confederates  attacked  the 
Federal  army,  charging  and  recharging  up  the 
hills  with  fearful  slaughter,  and  when  they  were 
driven  back  for  the  last  time,  July  3,  the  total 
in  killed  and  wounded  Union  soldiers  was  23,186, 
with  a  total  almost  as  great  for  the  Southern 

320 


THE    TURNING    OF   THE   TIDE  321 

army,  which  could  ill  afford  the  equal  loss.  Lee 
slowly  retired  across  the  Potomac,  and  Meade, 
reenforced,  with  fresher  troops,  refused  to  attack. 
Lincoln  was  as  sharp  as  his  patient  nature  would 
allow.  Meade's  phrase,  "  driving  the  invaders 
from  our  soil,"  particularly  displeased  him,  partly, 
perhaps,  because  the  whole  country  was  our  soil, 
but  more  because  it  showed  that  he  had  not  yet 
found  a  general  who  could  conceive  the  idea  of  fol 
lowing  up  advantage  and  destroying  his  adversary. 
On  account  of  the  President's  comments  Meade 
asked  to  be  relieved.  Lincoln  wrote,  in  a  letter 
which  he  never  sent,  this  view  of  the  struggle :  - 

"  I  am  very,  very  grateful  to  you  for  the  magnificent 
success  you  gave  the  cause  of  the  country  at  Gettysburg ; 
and  I  am  sorry  now  to  be  the  author  of  the  slightest 
pain  to  you.  But  I  was  in  such  deep  distress  myself 
that  I  could  not  restrain  some  expression  of  it.  I  have 
been  oppressed  nearly  ever  since  the  battles  at  Gettys 
burg  by  what  appeared  to  be  evidences  that  yourself 
and  General  Couch  and  General  Smith  were  not  seeking 
a  collision  with  the  enemy,  but  were  trying  to  get  him 
across  the  river  without  another  battle.  What  these 
evidences  were,  if  you  please,  I  hope  to  tell  you  at 
some  time  when  we  shall  both  feel  better.  The  case, 
summarily  stated,  is  this :  You  fought  and  beat  the  en 
emy  at  Gettysburg,  and,  of  course,  to  say  the  least,  his 
loss  was  as  great  as  yours.  He  retreated,  and  you  did 
not,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  pressingly  pursue  him  ;  but  a 
flood  in  the  river  detained  him  till,  by  slow  degrees,  you 

Y 


322  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

were  again  upon  him.  You  had  at  least  twenty  thou 
sand  veteran  troops  directly  with  you,  and  as  many 
more  raw  ones  within  supporting  distance,  all  in  addi 
tion  to  those  who  fought  with  you  at  Gettysburg,  while 
it  was  not  possible  that  he  had  received  a  single  recruit, 
and  yet  you  stood  and  let  the  flood  run  down,  bridges  be 
built,  and  the  enemy  move  away  at  his  leisure  without 
attacking  him.  And  Couch  and  Smith !  The  latter 
left  Carlisle  in  time,  upon  all  ordinary  calculation,  to 
have  aided  you  in  the  last  battle  at  Gettysburg,  but  he 
did  not  arrive.  At  the  end  of  more  than  ten  days, 
I  believe  twelve,  under  constant  urging,  he  reached 
Hagerstown  from  Carlisle,  which  is  not  an  inch  over 
fifty-five  miles,  if  so  much,  and  Couch's  movement  was 
very  little  different. 

"  Again,  my  dear  general,  I  do  not  believe  you  appreci 
ate  the  magnitude  of  the  misfortune  involved  in  Lee's 
escape.  He  was  within  your  easy  grasp,  and  to  close 
upon  him  would,  in  connection  with  our  other  late  suc 
cesses,  have  ended  the  war.  As  it  is,  the  war  will  be 
prolonged  indefinitely.  If  you  could  not  safely  attack 
Lee  last  Monday,  how  can  you  possibly  do  so  south  of 
the  river,  when  you  can  take  with  you  very  few  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  force  you  then  had  in  hand  ?  It 
would  be  unreasonable  to  expect,  and  I  do  not  expect 
you  can  now  effect  much.  Your  golden  opportunity  is 
gone,  and  I  am  distressed  immeasurably  because  of  it. 

"  I  beg  you  will  not  consider  this  a  prosecution  or  per 
secution  of  yourself.  As  you  had  learned  that  I  was  dis 
satisfied,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  kindly  tell  you  why." 

Things  dragged  along.  Meade  thought  of  at 
tacking  Lee  later,  at  a  disadvantage,  merely  to 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  323 

satisfy  the  administration,  an  idea  which  Lincoln 
rejected.  By  October,  however,  we  find  the 
President  writing  to  General  Halleck:  — 

"  Doubtless,  in  making  the  present  movement,  Lee 
gathered  in  all  available  scraps,  and  added  them  to 
Hill's  and  Ewell's  corps ;  but  that  is  all,  and  he  made 
the  movement  in  the  belief  that  four  corps  had  left 
General  Meade  ;  and  General  Meade's  apparently  avoid 
ing  a  collision  with  him  has  confirmed  him  in  that  be 
lief.  If  General  Meade  can  now  attack  him  on  a  field 
no  worse  than  equal  for  us,  and  will  do  so  with  all  the 
skill  and  courage  which  he,  his  officers,  and  men  pos 
sess,  the  honor  will  be  his  if  he  succeeds,  and  the  blame 
may  be  mine  if  he  fails." 

The  same  Fourth  of  July  which  told  the  nation 
of  the  saving  victory  of  Gettysburg  saw  another 
almost  equally  important  and  far  more  brilliant 
victory  in  the  West,  the  part  of  the  country  where 
most  of  the  best  Federal  generals  had  been  work 
ing  with  little  knowledge  from  Washington.  The 
capture  of  Vicksburg  brought  for  the  first  time 
very  prominently  before  the  President's  notice 
the  general  who  of  all  the  Union  soldiers  best 
combined  ability  with  the  offensive  spirit  neces 
sary  for  an  actual  conquest  by  beating  his  way 
into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country.  Lincoln 
had  commented  in  a  few  appreciative  words  on  a 
kindly  and  tactful  proclamation  made  by  General 
Grant  early  in  the  war,  but  had  paid  no  special 


324  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

attention  to  him,  as,  indeed,  nobody  had.  "  Keep 
still  and  saw  wood  "  was  a  maxim  which  Lincoln 
appreciated.  Grant  acted  on  it.  While  the 
other  generals  quarrelled  for  promotion  he  only 
asked  to  fight.  There  were  ten  pegs  where  there 
was  one  hole  to  put  them  in,  as  Lincoln  said. 
The  urgency  of  Fremont's  friends  that  he  should 
have  a  command  reminded  the  President  of  the 
youth  who  was  advised  to  take  a  wife.  "  Will 
ingly.  But  whose  wife  shall  I  take  ?  "  To  Gen 
eral  Rosecrans,  who,  troubled  by  the  dawning 
appreciation  that  Grant  was  the  fighter,  began  to 
pull  wires,  the  President  said  the  country  would 
"  never  care  a  fig  whether  you  rank  General 
Grant  on  paper,  or  he  so  ranks  you." 

In  1862,  when  the  other  generals  were  volumi 
nously  telling  what  they  needed,  Grant  tele 
graphed  to  Halleck,  "  If  permitted,  I  could  take 
and  hold  Fort  Henry  on  the  Tennessee."  Five 
days  after  he  received  permission  the  fort  was  his. 
Grant  then  moved  upon  Fort  Donelson.  He  had 
virtuously  informed  Halleck  of  his  intention,  but 
the  superior  officer's  instructions  to  confine  him 
self  to  fortifying  Fort  Henry  came  after  Grant 
already  had  his  grip  on  Donelson.  The  com 
mander  asked  for  terms,  and  Grant  said  none 
would  be  considered  except  "  unconditional  sur 
render."  Grant  in  his  memoirs  explains  his 
Chaste:  "I  was  very  impatient  to  get  at  Fort 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  325 

Donelson  because  I  knew  the  importance  of  the 
place  to  the  enemy,  and  supposed  he  would  ree'n- 
force  it  rapidly.  I  felt  that  15,000  on  the  8th 
would  be  more  effective  than  50,000  a  month 
later."  The  talking  generals  did  not  like  this, 
and  Halleck  immediately  claimed  the  credit  for 
Grant's  achievements.  Grant,  as  usual,  said 
nothing,  but  "  sawed  wood,"  while  Stanton  and 
Lincoln  conceived  a  higher  opinion  of  Halleck. 
Grant  fared  like  the  commonest  soldier  in  his 
command,  often  sleeping  on  the  ground  with  no 
covering,  without  overcoat  or  blanket,  and  at  one 
time  having  as  his  entire  baggage  for  several  days 
nothing  but  his  tooth-brush.  Just  after  Donelson 
he  arranged  for  the  capture  of  Nashville,  and  a 
little  latter  Halleck  and  McClellan  had  him  ar 
rested  on  a  charge  of  drunkenness.  An  inquiry 
by  the  War  Department  cleared  Grant  of  the 
charge,  and  gave  him  another  chance  to  work. 
He  at  once  moved  toward  Pittsburg  Landing,  to 
wait  for  Buell,  and  then  attack  Johnston's  army, 
which  was  fortifying  itself  there.  Johnston,  how 
ever,  with  superior  forces  attacked  him  before 
Buell  came,  and  after  the  first  day's  fighting 
Grant,  now  reenforced,  attacked  in  turn  the  next 
morning  at  Shiloh,  and  won.  Halleck  promptly 
gave  credit  to  everybody  except  Grant,  and  took 
command  of  the  army  himself,  while  the  stories 
of  Grant's  drunkenness  were  again  industriously 


326  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

circulated.  Lincoln  then  and  after  was  frequently 
asked  to  remove  him.  "  I  can't  spare  that  man ; 
he  fights,"  was  one  reply,  and  to  another  delega 
tion  he  said  he  would  like  to  know  what  brand  of 
whiskey  Grant  used,  that  he  might  feed  it  to  his 
other  generals.  Passing  over  other  important 
work  by  Grant  we  come,  in  July  1863,  to  the  act 
which  practically  made  it  certain  that  he  was  to 
be  the  main  reliance  of  the  President  and  the 
nation.  Vicksburg,  by  its  tremendously  strong 
fortifications,  and  its  position  on  the  Mississippi, 
was  of  immeasurable  importance.  After  having 
Sherman  try  an  assault,  and  experimenting  with 
canal  schemes  to  get  at  the  almost  impregnable 
citadel,  Grant  finally  decided  to  risk  destruction 
by  having  the  fleet  take  his  army  down  the  river 
in  front  of  the  batteries  and  land  it  below  the 
fortifications,  which  gave  the  only  opportunity  for 
successful  siege.  This  meant  prompt  victory  or 
annihilation.  The  result  was  surrender  on  July  4. 
The  total  outcome  of  this  campaign,  to  say  noth 
ing  of  the  value  of  the  Vicksburg  position,  was; 
according  to  Grant's  official  summaries,  the  oc 
cupation  of  Jackson,  the  capital  of  Mississippi, 
a  loss  to  the  Confederates  of  37,000  prisoners, 
10,000  killed  and  wounded,  many  more  miss 
ing,  and  arms  and  munitions  for  an  army  of 
60,000  men,  while  the  Federals  lost  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing  less  than  8000.  A  series 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  327 

of  brilliant  victories  by  Grant,  with  Sherman, 
Sheridan,  Thomas,  and  Hooker  as  lieutenants, 
very  soon  completed  this  work  in  the  West. 

Thus  Lincoln  found  his  soldier.  On  July  13 
he  wrote  to  him  :  — 

"  MY  DEAR  GENERAL  :  I  do  not  remember  that  you 
and  I  ever  met  personally.  I  write  this  now  as  a  grate 
ful  acknowledgment  for  the  almost  inestimable  service 
you  have  done  the  country.  I  wish  to  say  a  word  fur 
ther.  When  you  first  reached  the  vicinity  of  Vicksburg, 
I  thought  you  would  do  what  you  finally  did  —  march 
the  troops  across  the  neck,  run  the  batteries  with  the 
transports,  and  thus  go  below ;  and  I  never  had  any 
faith,  except  a  general  hope  that  you  knew  better  than  I 
that  the  Yazoo  Pass  expedition  and  the  like  could  suc 
ceed.  When  you  got  below  and  took  Fort  Gibson,  Grand 
Gulf,  and  the  vicinity,  I  thought  you  should  go  down 
the  river  and  join  General  Banks,  and  when  you  turned 
northward,  east  of  the  Big  Black,  I  feared  it  was  a  mis 
take.  I  now  wish  to  make  the  personal  acknowledgment 
that  you  were  right  and  I  was  wrong." 

On  the  2yth  of  the  same  month  Lincoln,  ex 
plaining  to  Burnside  why  he  could  not  give  him 
certain  information,  remarked,  "  General  Grant  is 
a  copious  worker  and  fighter,  but  a  very  meagre 
writer  or  telegrapher."  The  country,  however, 
was  beginning  to  understand  him,  in  spite  of  all 
wire-pulling,  and  there  grew  rapidly  a  demand  for 
his  command  of  all  the  forces.  The  difference 


328  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

between  him  and  even  so  able  a  general  as  Rose- 
crans,  a  sort  of  second  McClellan,  not  quite  so  slow, 
is  gently  hinted  in  the  memoirs.  Of  this  officer 
General  Grant  says :  "  He  came  into  my  car  and 
we  held  a  brief  interview,  in  which  he  described 
very  clearly  the  situation  at  Chattanooga,  and 
made  some  very  excellent  suggestions  as  to  what 
should  be  done.  My  only  wonder  was  that  he 
had  not  carried  them  out."  It  will  hardly  be  out 
of  place  to  insert  here  Grant's  opinion  of  the 
President  who,  as  soon  as  he  once  came  to  know 
his  general,  gave  over  the  whole  military  con 
duct  of  the  war  to  him.  Grant  says  of  Lin 
coln  :  "  A  man  of  great  ability,  pure  patriotism, 
unselfish  nature,  full  of  forgiveness  to  his  ene 
mies,  bearing  malice  toward  none,  he  proved 
to  be  the  man  above  all  others  for  the  strug 
gle  through  which  the  nation  had  to  pass  to 
place  itself  among  the  greatest  in  the  family  of 
nations." 

Another  soldier  who  was  coming  to  his  proper 
place  was  General  Sherman.  He  had  first  met 
Lincoln  in  March,  1861,  when  he  was  introduced 
by  his  brother  John,  who  said,  u  Mr.  President, 
this  is  my  brother,  Colonel  Sherman,  who  is  just 
up  from  Louisiana  ;  he  may  give  you  some  infor 
mation  you  want." 

"  Ah,"  said  Lincoln,  "  how  are  they  getting 
along  down  there  ?  " 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  329 

"  They  think  they  are  getting  along  swimmingly 
—  they  are  preparing  for  war." 

"  Oh,  well,"  replied  the  President,  "  I  guess 
we'll  manage  to  keep  house." 

The  young  soldier  was  disgusted  enough,  and 
emphatically  told  his  brother  what  he  thought  of 
politicians  in  general. 

After  Bull  Run  Sherman  received  a  pleasanter 
impression  of  his  chief.  He  saw  him  riding  one 
day  with  Seward  in  an  open  hack  and  asked  if 
they  were  going  to  his  camps. 

"  Yes,"  said  Lincoln ;  "  we  heard  that  you  had 
got  over  the  big  scare,  and  we  thought  we  would 
come  over  and  see  the  boys." 

As  always  after  a  defeat,  the  President  wanted 
to  encourage  everybody,  and  wished  to  address 
the  soldiers.  Sherman  asked  him  to  discourage 
cheering,  noise,  or  other  confusion,  saying  they 
had  had  enough  of  that  before  Bull  Run  to  ruin 
any  lot  of  righting  men,  Lincoln  took  the  sug 
gestion  with  good  nature.  He  then  made  from 
his  carriage  what  Sherman  calls  "  one  of  the 
neatest,  best,  and  most  feeling  addresses  I  ever 
listened  to."  At  one  or  two  points  the  soldiers 
began  to  cheer.  "  Don't  cheer,  boys,"  said  Lincoln, 
"  I  confess  I  rather  like  it  myself,  but  Colonel 
Sherman  here  says  it  is  not  military,  and  I  guess 
we  had  better  defer  to  his  opinion."  In  con 
clusion,  he  told  the  men  that  as  he  was  their  com- 


330  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

mander-in-chief,  he  was  determined  the  soldiers 
should  have  everything  the  law  allowed,  and  re 
quested  them  to  appeal  to  him  personally  if  they 
were  wronged.  "  The  effect  of  this  speech,"  says 
Sherman,  "  was  excellent." 

Later  an  officer  forced  his  way  through  the 
crowd,  and  said,  "  Mr.  President,  I  have  a  griev 
ance."  He  then  told  that  Colonel  Sherman  had 
threatened  to  shoot  him.  After  looking  at  him, 
and  then  at  Sherman,  Lincoln,  stepping  toward 
the  officer,  said,  in  a  stage  whisper,  "  Well,  if  I 
were  you,  and  he  threatened  to  shoot,  I  wouldn't 
trust  him,  for  I  believe  he  would  do  it." 

The  officer  left,  and  the  men  laughed.  Sher 
man  explained  the  facts,  and  Lincoln  said,  "  Of 
course,  I  didn't  know  anything  about  it,  but  I 
thought  you  knew  your  own  business  best." 

Lincoln's  relations  to  Sherman  after  he  came 
to  high  command  were  of  the  most  friendly  sort. 
He  told  him  later  in  the  war  that  he  was  always 
grateful  to  him  and  to  Grant  because  they  never 
scolded  him. 

The  discovery  of  the  proper  generals  made  an 
immense  difference  in  the  life  of  the  President. 
He  could  confine  himself  largely  to  other  than 
military  matters,  and  politics  were  soon  to  need 
his  closest  attention.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
spring  Grant  was  made  lieutenant  general,  and 
took  command  of  the  forces  in  the  East,  to  begin 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  331 

the  final  struggle.  Lincoln  gave  few  suggestions 
and  no  orders.  Once  he  had  sat  in  deep  medita 
tion,  and  finally  remarked :  "  Do  you  know  that  I 

think   General is   a  philosopher  ?     He    has 

proved  himself  a  really  great  man.  He  has  grap 
pled  with  and  mastered  that  ancient  and  wise 
admonition,  '  Know  thyself ' ;  he  has  formed  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  himself;  knows  as 
well  for  what  he  is  fitted  and  unfitted  as  any  man 
living.  Without  doubt  he  is  a  remarkable  man. 
This  war  has  not  produced  another  like  him.  He 
has  resigned.  And  now  I  hope  some  other  dress- 
parade  commanders  will  study  the  good  old  admo 
nition,  '  Know  thyself,'  and  follow  his  example." 
By  the  end  of  1863  the  dress-parade  commanders 
were  pretty  nearly  gone.  Of  a  cavalry  raid,  which 
filled  the  papers  with  enthusiasm,  but  did  not  cut 
the  communications  at  which  it  was  aimed,  Lin 
coln  remarked  that  it  "  was  good  circus  riding." 
When  the  final  struggle  began  in  the  spring,  in 
stead  of  the  current  joke,  "  Who  ever  saw  a  dead 
cavalryman  ? "  Washington  was  to  have  a  sample 
of  Philip  Sheridan's  cavalry  methods. 

Before  finishing  the  year  1863,  however,  there 
remain  to  be  noted  a  number  of  details  about  the 
President,  among  them  a  few  half  pathetic  per 
sonal  touches.  To  the  actor,  James  H.  Hackett, 
who  had  sent  him  a  book,  Lincoln  said  in  his 
reply :  — 


332  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  For  one  of  my  age  I  have  seen  very  little  of  the 
drama.  The  first  presentation  of  Falstaff  I  ever  saw 
was  yours  here,  last  winter  or  spring.  Perhaps  the  best 
compliment  I  can  pay  is  to  say,  as  I  truly  can,  I  am  very 
anxious  to  see  it  again.  Some  of  Shakespeare's  plays 
I  have  never  read,  while  others  I  have  gone  over  per 
haps  as  frequently  as  any  unprofessional  reader.  Among 
the  latter  are  'Lear,'  '  Richard  III.,'  '  Henry  VIII.,' 
'Hamlet,'  and  especially  'Macbeth.'  I  think  nothing 
equals  '  Macbeth.'  It  is  wonderful.  Unlike  you  gen 
tlemen  of  the  profession,  I  think  the  soliloquy  in  '  Ham 
let  '  commencing,  '  Oh,  my  offence  is  rank,'  surpasses 
that  commencing,  'To  be  or  not  to  be.'  But  pardon 
this  small  attempt  at  criticism.  I  should  like  to  hear 
you  pronounce  the  opening  speech  of  '  Richard  III.' " 

Perhaps  the  President  did  not  appreciate  the 
usual  vanity  of  actors.  Hackett  gave  the  letter 
to  the  press,  wrote  Lincoln  again,  and  received 
in  return  these  words :  — 

"  My  note  to  you  I  certainly  did  not  expect  to  see  in 
print ;  yet  I  have  not  been  much  shocked  by  the  news 
paper  comments  upon  it.  Those  comments  constitute  a 
fair  specimen  of  what  has  occurred  to  me  through  life. 
I  have  endured  a  great  deal  of  ridicule  without  much 
malice ;  and  have  received  a  great  deal  of  kindness,  not 
quite  free  from  ridicule.  I  am  used  to  it." 

In  a  letter  to  his  wife  in  August,  he  says :  — 

"  Tell  dear  Tad  poor  '  Nanny  Goat '  is  lost,  and  Mrs. 
Cuthbert  and  I  are  in  distress  about  it.  The  day  you 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  333 

left  Nanny  was  found  resting  herself  and  chewing  her 
little  cud  on  the  middle  of  Tad's  bed ;  but  now  she's 
gone!  The  gardener  kept  complaining  that  she  de 
stroyed  the  flowers,  till  it  was  concluded  to  bring  her 
down  to  the  White  House.  This  was  done,  and  the 
second  day  she  had  disappeared,  and  has  not  been  heard 
of  since.  This  is  the  last  we  know  of  poor  Nanny." 

There  were  two  goats,  and  Lincoln  used  to  play 
with  them  in  the  White  House  yard.  The  next 
year  a  telegram  to  Mrs.  Lincoln  referred  to  them 
thus,  "  Tell  Tad  the  goats  and  father  are  very 
well  —  especially  the  goats." 

The  fall  elections  went  well,  and  one  of  the 
President's  comments  was  this  :  — 

"  I  am  very  glad  the  elections  this  autumn  have  gone 
favorably,  and  that  I  have  not,  by  native  depravity  or 
under  evil  influences,  done  anything  bad  enough  to  pre 
vent  the  good  result.  I  hope  to  '  stand  firm  '  enough  to 
not  go  backward,  and  yet  not  go  forward  fast  enough 
to  wreck  the  country's  cause." 

His  attitude  toward  Stanton  and  toward  certain 
tests  for  office  are  shown  in  this  note  to  the  Sec 
retary  of  War:  - 

"  I  personally  wish  Jacob  Freese,  of  New  Jersey,  to 
be  appointed  colonel  for  a  colored  regiment,  and  this 
regardless  of  whether  he  can  tell  the  exact  shade  of 
Julius  Caesar's  hair." 


334  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

A  germ  of  the  doctrine  of  preference  for  the 
veteran,  so  fully  extended  since,  was  planted  by 
the  President:  — 

"  Yesterday  little  indorsements  of  mine  went  to  you 
in  two  cases  of  postmasterships  sought  for  widows 
whose  husbands  have  fallen  in  the  battles  of  this  war. 
These  cases  occurring  on  the  same  day  brought  me  to 
reflect  more  attentively  than  I  had  before  done  as  to 
what  is  fairly  due  from  us  here  in  the  dispensing  of 
patronage  toward  the  men  who,  by  fighting  our  battles, 
bear  the  chief  burden  of  saving  our  country.  My  con 
clusion  is  that,  other  claims  and  qualifications  being  equal, 
they  have  the  better  right ;  and  this  is  especially  appli 
cable  to  the  disabled  soldier  and  the  deceased  soldier's 
family." 

That  his  view  of  the  delinquent  soldier  did  not 
harden  as  time  made  him  more  familiar  with  the 
facts  is  shown  by  this  :  — 

"  The  case  of  Andrews  is  really  a  very  bad  one,  as 
appears  by  the  record  already  before  me.  Yet  before 
receiving  this  I  had  ordered  his  punishment  commuted 
to  imprisonment  for  during  the  war  at  hard  labor,  and 
had  so  telegraphed.  I  did  this,  not  on  any  merit  in  the 
case,  but  because  I  am  trying  to  evade  the  butchering 
business  lately." 

The  fall  of  1863  saw  one  of  the  President's 
most  noted  literary  efforts.  About  the  famous 
address  at  the  dedication  of  Gettysburg  Ceme^ 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  335 

tery  many  contrary  statements  have  been  made, 
both  about  its  preparation  and  about  its  recep 
tion.  The  most  plausible  view  is  that  it  was 
rather  carefully  prepared,  that  it  was  received  by 
the  assemblage  in  comparative  silence,  and  that 
Lincoln  and  others  present  thought  it  a  failure, 
only  to  learn  their  mistake  when  they  saw  its  re 
ception  by  the  world.  Lamon  says  that  a  few 
days  before  the  dedication  Lincoln  spoke  to  him 
of  his  short  time  for  preparation  and  his  fear  of 
not  coming  out  of  the  situation  with  credit.  From 
his  hat  he  drew  a  sheet  of  foolscap,  on  one  side  of 
which  was  a  closely  written  memorandum  of  the 
intended  address.  After  the  delivery  he  said  he 
regretted  that  it  had  not  been  done  more  care 
fully.  "  Lamon,"  he  said  also,  "  that  speech  won't 
scour /  It  is  a  flat  failure.  The  people  are  dis 
appointed."  Edward  Everett,  the  orator  of  the 
day,  whose  long  speech  is  unremembered  now, 
and  Secretary  Seward  also  thought,  according  to 
Lamon,  that  Lincoln  had  failed  and  that  the 
crowd  was  disappointed.  The  story  that  it  was 
written  on  the  train  probably  grew  out  of  a  final 
revision.  The  whole  speech  was  :  — 

"  Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  lib 
erty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal. 

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338  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so 
dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great 
battle-field  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a 
portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting-place  for  those 
who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live. 
It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do 
this. 

"  But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate  —  we  can 
not  consecrate  —  we  cannot  hallow  —  this  ground.  The 
brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have 
consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  de 
tract.  The  world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember 
what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did 
here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated 
here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought 
here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for 
us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining 
before  us  —  that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  in 
creased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the 
last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  that  we  here  highly  re 
solve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain  ;  that 
this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  free 
dom  ;  and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

The  classical,  lasting  qualities  of  this  brief  ad 
dress  are  no  longer  subject  to  doubt.  They  stand 
with  the  few  best  known  pieces  of  English  prose. 
The  last  phrase  is  one  that  the  world  had  been 
working  at,  and  Lincoln  had  marked  something 
very  much  like  it  in  one  of  Theodore  Parker's 
lectures;  but  it  was  chosen  for  this  final  place 


THE   TURNING   OF  THE   TIDE  339 

with  literary  skill,  and  the  whole  address,  which 
has  no  other  echo  in  it,  is  too  nobly  right  to  gain 
by  praise.  Nothing  could  prove  how  thoroughly 
the  man  of  the  people  could  be  the  man  of  taste ; 
how  the  absolute  Democrat  could  perfectly  speak 
the  highest  language  of  literary  simplicity.  Noth 
ing  seems  too  ripe  or  cultivated  for  him,  just  as 
nothing  seems  too  humble  or  crude  to  deserve 
his  fellowship.  With  the  highest  he  never  en 
tirely  lost  the  air  of  familiarity ;  when  easily 
meeting  the  lowest  it  was  always  with  an  inalien 
able  dignity.  How  different,  it  might  be  natural 
to  exclaim,  the  Lincoln  who  penned  these  lines 
from  the  Lincoln  who  listened  to  Lamon's  songs ; 
yet  the  surprise  would  be  as  shallow  as  it  would 
be  natural.  He  was  a  man,  and  deemed  nothing 
human  foreign  to  him ;  yet  his  soul  dwelt  alone, 
"  silent  upon  a  peak  in  Darien."  This  solitary 
greatness,  this  elevation  and  distinction  in  the 
midst  of  unconventionality  and  equality,  are  well 
set  in  the  outer  habits  of  his  life.  A  French 
marquis  has  left  this  singularly  vivid  impression 
of  him.  "  He  wittingly  laughed  either  at  what 
was  being  said  to  him,  or  at  what  he  said  himself. 
But  all  of  a  sudden  he  would  retire  within  him 
self  ;  then  he  would  close  his  eyes  and  all  his  fea 
tures  would  at  once  bespeak  a  kind  of  sadness  as 
indescribable  as  it  was  deep.  After  a  while,  as 
though  it  were  by  an  effort  of  his  will,  he  would 


340  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

shake  off  this  mysterious  weight  under  which  he 
seemed  bowed;  his  generous  and  open  disposi 
tion  would  again  reappear.  In  one  evening  I 
happened  to  count  over  twenty  of  these  alterna 
tions  and  contrasts." 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  the  year  1863  showed  the 
President's  never  sleeping  wish  for  leniency.  To 
his  annual  message  to  Congress  he  added,  unex 
pectedly  to  everybody,  a  proclamation  granting 
amnesty  to  all  rebels,  barring  certain  classes,  who 
would  take  a  simple  oath  to  support  the  Constitu 
tion,  the  Union,  and  the  legislation  and  proc 
lamations  concerning  slavery.  By  the  same 
proclamation  one-tenth  of  the  voters  in  a  seceded 
state  were  given  the  right,  after  taking  and  keep 
ing  the  oath,  to  reestablish  a  state  government. 
Almost  immediately  Congress  showed  displeas 
ure  at  the  President's  undertaking  reconstruction 
alone,  it  being  uncertain  which  branch  of  the 
government  had  the  better  right  to  accomplish 
that  duty.  Naturally  also  many  people  felt  stern 
ness  where  Lincoln  felt  none.  His  constant 
desire  for  compensation  to  the  slaveholders  may 
be  contrasted  with  the  sentiment  voiced  even  by 
so  gentle  a  soul  as  Emerson :  — 

"  Pay  ransom  to  the  owner, 
Ay,  fill  it  up  to  the  brim  ! 
Who  is  the  owner?    The  slave  is  owner, 
And  ever  was.     Pay  him." 


THE   TURNING   OF   THE   TIDE  341 

This  moral  indignation  applied  equally  to  re 
construction  ;  but  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other 
indignation  was  of  a  quality  which  to  Lincoln's 
character  was  entirely  foreign.  Whatever  he 
believed  about  the  Christian  religion,  he  prac 
tised  as  few  others  did  some  of  the  extreme 
Christian  virtues.  He  very  genuinely  believed 
that  the  way  to  establish  the  new  order  of  things 
without  bitterness  was  to  treat  the  vanquished 
rebel  as  if  he  were  a  beloved  and  trustworthy 
brother  who  had  just  been  convinced  in  an  argu 
ment.  This  state  of  mind,  looked  upon  as 
impractical,  did  a  good  deal  to  add  to  the  con 
siderable  opposition  which  existed,  especially 
among  politicians,  to  Lincoln's  renommation  in 
the  following  spring.  The  leader  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  said  that  the  President  had 
but  one  political  friend  in  that  body.  Lincoln, 
however,  had  his  convictions  fully  ripened.  Some 
times  he  felt  sure  of  renomination,  sometimes  he 
saw  little  hope  of  it,  but  in  either  case  his  way 
lay  clear  before  him.  He  could  do  the  right,  as 
it  seemed  clearly  marked  out  before  him,  and 
silently  endure  whatever  he  could  not  remedy ; 
but  in  the  meantime  he  would  "  saw  some  wood." 
He  would  trust  the  great  engine  of  sane  public 
opinion,  but  he  also  knew  when  to  put  a  little  oil 
in  it,  and  how  to  touch  a  spring  here  or  tighten 
a  screw  there  to  make  it  work  better.  The  his- 


342  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

tory  of  the  next  presidential  campaign  will  be 
the  story  of  destiny  and  justice  grandly  vindi 
cating  the  work  of  the  servant  who,  according 
to  Emerson,  had  "  been  permitted  to  do  more  for 
America  than  any  other  American  man  " ;  but  if 
correctly  read  it  will  also  show  that  American 
statesman  astutely  and  subterraneously  guiding 
destiny  to  its  just  conclusion. 


CHAPTER    XV 

RENOMINATION    AND    REELECTION 

AMONG  the  obstacles  to  Lincoln's  renomina- 
tion  Secretary  Chase  reckoned  himself  a  large 
one.  He  used  his  position  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  every  way  he  could  to  strengthen 
his  own  chances  against  those  of  the  President. 
General  Butler  tells  us  that  a  friend  of  Chase 
offered  him  the  nomination  for  vice-presidency 
on  condition  that  Chase  should  win  at  the  con 
vention.  The  criticisms  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  on  the  administration  were  unceasing 
and  severe.  His  letters  contain  frank  admissions 
that  if  the  country  shall  look  upon  him  as  the 
ablest  standard-bearer  he  will  not  dispute  the 
choice.  Senator  Pomeroy  brought  matters  to  a 
head  by  issuing  a  circular  calling  for  efforts  by 
the  friends  of  the  Union  who  disapproved  of  the 
administration,  to  counteract  the  work  being  done 
for  Lincoln's  renomination.  The  President's  re 
election  was  stated  to  be  practically  impossible 
as  well  as  undesirable,  among  other  reasons  on 
account  of  Lincoln's  "  tendency  toward  compro- 
'mises  and  temporary  expedients  of  policy."  The 

343 


344  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

document  also  stated  that  the  friends  of  Chase 
had  already  established  conventions  in  all  the 
states.  The  circular  soon  got  into  the  press, 
and  Chase  saw  that  his  only  course  was  to  resign, 
which  he  did.  Lincoln  replied  that  he  would  not 
allow  himself  to  consider  the  question  from  any 
standpoint  other  than  his  judgment  of  the  public 
service,  and  in  that  view  he  saw  no  occasion  for  a 
change.  To  his  friend  Raymond,  whose  omission 
of  Chase's  name  hardly  creates  a  doubt,  he  gave 
a  rather  more  racy  estimate  of  the  situation :  — 

"  Raymond,  you  were  brought  up  on  a  farm,  were  you 
not  ?  Then  you  know  what  a  chin-fly  is.  My  brother 
and  I  were  once  ploughing  corn  on  a  farm,  I  driving  the 
horse,  and  he  holding  plough.  The  horse  was  lazy,  but 
on  one  occasion  rushed  across  the  fields  so  that  I,  with 
my  long  legs,  could  scarcely  keep  pace  with  him.  On 
reaching  the  end  of  the  furrow,  I  found  an  enormous 
chin-fly  fastened  upon  him,  and  knocked  him  off.  My 
brother  asked  me  what  I  did  that  for.  I  told  him  I 
didn't  want  the  old  horse  bitten  in  that  way.  'Why,' 
said  my  brother,  '  that's  all  that  made  him  go.'  Now,  if 

Mr. has  a  presidential  chin-fly  biting  him  I  am  not 

going  to  knock  him  off,  if  it  will  only  make  his  depart- 
mentgo." 

Chase's  hopes  came  to  an  end  in   February^ 
when  his  own  state,  Ohio,  renominated   Lincoln. 
That  statesman's  view  of  the  result  he  has  stated 
himself :  — 


RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  345 

"  Your  views  of  policy  coincide  with  my  own,  and  had 
it  seemed  to  be  the  will  of  the  people  that  I  should  take 
the  responsibilities  of  government  I  should  not  have 
refused,  though  I  could  not  seek  such  a  place.  But, 
through  the  natural  partialities  of  the  people  for  the 
President,  and  the  systematic  operation  of  the  Postmas 
ter-General,  and  those  holding  office  under  him,  a  prefer 
ence  for  the  reelection  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  created,  to 
which  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  bow  cheerfully  and  un 
hesitatingly.  It  did  not  cost  me  a  regret  to  do  so. 
That,  since  then,  I  have  been  so  maliciously  pursued 
by  the  Blair  family,  is  what  was  wholly  unexpected. 
That  their  slanders  have  the  apparent,  though  I  am 
sure  not  the  real,  indorsement  of  the  President,  is  a  new 
source  of  pain  to  me.  No  good  can,  I  think,  come  of 
the  probable  identification  of  the  next  administration 
with  the  family.  The  political  future,  in  consequence 
of  it,  has  already  become  clouded  and  doubtful." 

The  reference  to  the  Blair  family  meant  merely 
that  Lincoln  would  not  join  in  a  feud  between 
General  Blair  and  Chase.  The  bad  blood  con 
tinued,  especially  as  each  wished  to  control  the 
patronage  connected  wjth  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment.  Finally,  in  JuneyfChase  resigned,  for  the 
fourth  time,  it  is  said,  and  Lincoln  accepted, 
frankly  on  the  ground  that  their  relations  had 
become  too  strained  for  further  work  together. 
The  President  made  a  bad  nomination,  David 
Todd  of  Ohio,  who  declined,  and  then  Senator 
Fessenden  of  Maine,  chairman  of  the  Committee 


346  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

on  Finance,  an  excellent  choice,  was  with  difficulty 
induced  to  accept.  Chase,  within  a  week  after 
his  retirement,  said  that  he  was  then  inclined  to 
agree  with  Pomeroy,  who  would  not  support  Lin 
coln,  but  he  added  that  he  was  "  not  willing  now 
to  decide  what  duty  may  demand  next  fall."  In 
September  he  visited  Washington,  saw  Lincoln, 
and  declared  in  his  favor.  Just  after  this  Chief 
Justice  Taney  died.  Sumner,  Stan  ton,  and  others 
were  in  favor  of  giving  Chase  the  place.  Oppo 
nents  of  the  move  said  he  did  not  know  enough 
law,  as  his  life  had  been  almost  entirely  politi 
cal.  Lincoln  waited  several  weeks  before  acting, 
although  his  mind  was  probably  made  up.  Chase 
says  in  his  diary  that  Lincoln  told  a  friend  of  his 
June  30  that  he  intended  to  appoint  Chase  if  a 
vacancy  occurred  in  the  chief  justiceship,  Taney 
then  being  ill.  Warden,  Chase's  biographer, 
quotes  Sumner  as  telling  him  that  Lincoln  pro 
posed  to  Sumner  the  plan  of  sending  for  Chase, 
and  frankly  telling  him  that  he  would  make  the 
best  chief  justice  we  ever  had  if  he  could  only 
get  rid  of  his  presidential  ambition.  Sumner 
thought  that  this  course  would  lead  to  misinter 
pretation  of  Lincoln's  motives,  and  also  displease 
Chase,  so  the  President  made  the  appointment 
without  exacting  any  pledge.  As  Chase  was 
already  removed  from  Lincoln's  own  way,  the 
President's  motive  in  wishing  him  out  of  politics 


/  /  >  u/ } 

RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  347 

was  doubtless  mainly  the  genuine  belief  that 
dabbling  in  them  would  injure  his  work  on  the 
bench.  To  George  S.  Boutwell,  however,  Lincoln 
said,  after  Chase's  nomination :  "  There  are  three 
reasons  why  he  should  be  nominated,  and  one 
why  he  should  not  be.  In  the  first  plac^ie  occu 
pies  a  larger  place  in  the  public  mind,  with  refer 
ence  to  the  office,  than  any  other  person.  p.Then 
we  want  a  man  who  will  sustain  the  Legal  Tender 
Act  anil  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation.  We 
cannot  ask  a  candidate  what  he  would  do,  and  if 
we  did  and  he  should  answer,  we  should  only 
despise  him  for  it^JBut  he  wants  to  be  President, 
and  if  he  does  not  give  that  up  it  will  be  a  great 
injury  to  him  and  a  great  injury  to  me.  He  can 
never  be  President." 

Another  seeker  of  the  same  prize  was  Fremont. 
Among  his  supporters  the  best  known  was  Wen 
dell  Phillips,  who  said  he  should  look  upon  Lin 
coln's  reelection  as  meaning  the  end  of  the  Union, 
or  reconstruction  on  terms  worse  than  disunion. 
Other  Fremont  men  described  the  President's 
"  imbecile  and  vacillating  policy."  They  got  to 
gether  in  small  numbers  for  a  mass  convention  ft?L 
May,  and  nominated  their  man.  Lincoln,  when 
told  that  the  convention  was  so  small,  took  up  the 
Bible,  and  read  from  Samuel  these  lines,  "  And 
every  one  that  was  in  distress,  and  every  one  that 
was  discontented,  gathered  themselves  unto  him ; 


348  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

and  he  became  a  captain  over  them ;  and  there 
were  in  all  about  foui  hundred  men." 

In  reference  to  the  opposition  of  Wendell 
Phillips,  Wade,  Davis,  and  others,  he  recalled 
an  Illinois  farmer  who,  at  his  repast,  was  inter 
rupted  by  the  exclamation  of  his  son  :  — 

"  Hold  on,  dad !  there's  skippers  in  that  cheese 
you're  eating." 

"  Never  mind,  Tom,  if  they  can  stand  it,  I  can." 

Fremont's  letter  of  acceptance  attacked  the 
President,  and  hinted  that  if  the  Republicans  in 
their  approaching  convention  at  Baltimore,  would 
choose  another  candidate,  he  would  withdraw. 
The  Fremont  people  attacked  the  administration 
not  only  for  its  (vacillation )  but  for  its  us.e  of 
patronage.  It  was  undoubtedly  true  that  all  the 
resources  of  the  administration,  including  the 
War  Department,  in  spite  of  Stanton's  opposi 
tion  to  some  of  the  methods,  were  used  to  secure 
the  President's  renomination  and  reelection.  But 
these  things  did  not  bother  the  people.  The  only 
thing  that  counted  much  with  them  was  military 
success,  and  Lincoln's  chances,  in  spite  of  his 
real  popularity,  seemed  to  hang  largely  on  the 
army.  Fremont  soon  saw  that  he  was  in  for 
littleTmore  than  ridicule,  but  he  would  only  retire 
on  condition  that  the  arch-enemy  of  the  radicals, 
Blair,  should  leave  the  cabinet.  Lincoln  did  not 
feel  strong  enough  to  take  needless  chances,  and 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  349 

he  secured  Blair's  resignation  without  losing  his 
support.  Fremont  withdrew.  In  commenting 
on  his  difficulty  in  satisfying  the  politicians  when 
he  was  choosing  successors  to  Blair  and  to  Bates, 
who  also  resigned  in  this  year,  Lincoln  said,  "  I 
suppose  that  if  the  twelve  apostles  were  to  be 
chosen  nowadays,  the  shrieks  of  locality  would 
have  to  be  heeded."  Some  idea  of  the  constant 
pressure  for  office  is  given  by  a  little  tale  about 
a  delegation  that  called  on  the  President  to  re 
quest  the  appointment  of  a  certain  man  as  com 
missioner  to  the  Sandwich  Islands.  They  urged 
among  other  things  that  he  was  in  bad  health 
and  residence  in  the  Islands  would  benefit  him. 
"  Gentlemen,"  said  Lincoln,  "  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  there  are  eight  other  applicants  for  the  place, 
and  they  are  all  sicker  than  your  man." 

Lincoln  was  certainly  a  politician  among  the 
politicians,  as  a  number  of  illustrations  will  show. 
George  W.  Julian,  one  of  the  malcontent  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  whom  Lincoln  had  every  rea 
son  to  wish  to  please,  was  renominated,  but  not 
recognized  as  the  regular  nominee  by  one  of  the 
Republican  newspapers,  the  editor  of  which  hap 
pened  to  be  commissioner  of  patents.  Lincoln 
assured  Julian  that  the  editor  should  support 
him  or  lose  his  head,  and  the  paper  shortly  after 
changed  its  mind.  His  letters  show  him  trying 
for  an  opportunity  to  conciliate  Governor  Sey- 


350  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

mour,  which  was  in  vain,  and  also  Thurlow  Weed, 
which  succeeded  better.  R.  E.  Fenton  tells  of 
being  called  to  Washington  by  a  telegram  from 
one  of  the  President's  private  secretaries,  and 
addressed  by  Lincoln,  as  nearly  as  he  could  re 
member,  as  follows :  "  You  are  to  be  nominated 
by  our  folks  for  governor  of  your  state.  Sey 
mour  of  course  will  be  the  Democratic  nominee. 
You  will  have  a  hard  fight.  .  .  .  There  is  some 
trouble  among  our  folks  over  there,  which  we 
must  try  and  manage.  Or,  rather,  there  is  one 
man  who  may  give  us  trouble,  because  of  his 
indifference,  if  in  no  other  way.  He  has  great 
influence  and  his  feelings  may  be  reflected  in 
many  of  his  friends.  We  must  have  his  counsel 
and  cooperation  if  possible."  Thurlow  Weed,  in 
short,  was  not  pleased  with  the  disposition  of  the 
Federal  patronage  in  New  York,  being  particu 
larly  hostile  to  the  collector  and  surveyor.  Nico- 
lay,  the  secretary,  and  Fenton  returned  to  New 
York  that  evening.  The  next  day  Fenton  had  a 
consultation  with  Weed,  Nicolay  returned  to 
Washington  with  the  resignation  of  the  surveyor, 
and  a  friend  of  Weed  was  the  successor.  The 
state  went  Republican  in  the  fall. 

It  has  been  frequently  said  that  Lincoln  as  far 
'oack  as  1862  offered  to  get  out  of  the  way  in 
1864  if  Seymour  would  take  the  right  ground  in 
his  annual  message ;  but  Seymour  remained  as 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  351 

violent  as  ever.  Lamon  also  says  that  the  Presi 
dent  then  made  an  offer  to  McClellan  looking  to 
his  nomination  by  the  Democrats  with  Republi 
can  support ;  but  these  stories  have  little  to  rest 
upon.  As  far  as  can  now  be  seen,  Lincoln,  in 
spite  of  certain  strong  moods  and  consequently 
strong  expressions,  was  in  the  field  for  renomina- 
tion  from  the  beginning.  His  correspondence 
indicates  some  of  the  directions  of  his  political 
activity  during  the  first  part  of  1864.  He  was 
once  heard  to  say  that  honest  statesmanship  was 
the  employment  of  individual  meanness  for  the 
public  good.  He  played  on  most  of  the  keys  of 
human  nature  and  he  never  failed  to  aim  at  the 
public  good.  He  held  a  sharp  rein  on  the  poli 
ticians  in  his  party,  and  yet  he  treated  them 
leniently.  "  I  am  in  favor  of  short  statutes  of 
limitations  in  politics,"  he  said,  which  was  only 
another  side  of  his  love  for  forgiveness  and  his 
lack  of  rancor.  He  worked  hard  for  his  renomi- 
nation  and  his  reelection,  and  he  faced  much 
malice  but  bore  none.  Speaking  of  resentment 
he  said :  "  Perhaps  I  have  too  little  of  it ;  but  I 
never  thought  it  paid.  A  man  has  no  time  to 
spend  half  his  life  in  quarrels."  Again,  to  Mr. 
Hay,  "  It  is  singular  that  I,  who  am  not  a  vindic 
tive  man,  should  always,  except  once,  have  been 
before  the  people  for  election  in  canvasses 
marked  for  their  bitterness."  In  the  present 


352  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

/y  '>/  ''>*O7   Jfr64 

contest  he  saw  that  those  who  opposed  him  were 
working  against  the  public  good  and  he  knew 
that  every  point  he  could  make  for  himself  was 
a  point  for  his  country.  After  his  nomination  he 
said  to  a  delegation :  "  But  I  do  not  allow  myself 
to  suppose  that  either  the  convention  or  the 
league  have  concluded  to  decide  that  I  am  either 
the  greatest  or  best  man  in  America,  but  rather 
they  have  concluded  that  it  is  not  best  to  swap 
horses  while  crossing  the  river,  and  have  further 
concluded  that  I  am  not  so  poor  a  horse  that 
they  might  not  make  a  botch  of  it  in  trying  to 
swap." 

Nothing  could  better  show  his  combination  of 
frankness  and  modesty. 

Three  days  before  the  Republican  convention 
a  mass  meeting  was  held  in  New  York  to  thank 
Grant,  and  there  was  thought  to  be  a  design  to 
present  him  as  a  candidate.  The  general,  how 
ever,  firmly  refused  the  use  of  his  name.  It  is 
said  that  the  President,  warned  about  him,  had 
sounded  him  through  friends  earlier  in  the  season. 
When  the  convention  was  actually  held,  June  7, 
Lincoln  received  484  votes  on  the  first  ballot,  the 
32  from  Missouri  going  to  Grant,  but  being  im 
mediately  transferred  to  Lincoln. 

About  the  vice-presidency  there  has  been 
some  controversy  in  print,  but  the  facts  are  in 
no  reasonable  doubt.  General  Butler  tells  us 


RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  353 

that  he  was  offered  the  second  place,  but  said  he 
would  not  take  it  unless  the  President  would 
agree  to  die  during  the  term.  Colonel  McClure 
confirms  this,  and  gives  a  full  and  apparently 
exact  account  of  the  movement  against  Hamlin's 
renomination.  The  Vice- President  had  apparently 
given  at  least  passive  support  to  the  Republican 
opposition  to  Lincoln  led  by  Wade  of  Ohio  and 
Davis  of  Maryland,  although  he  is  reported  to 
have  refused  to  be  nominated  against  the  Presi 
dent.  Lincoln  felt  an  underlying  despondency 
in  the  North,  after  the  effect  of  Gettysburg  and 
Vicksburg  had  passed  and  the  heavy  drafts 
in  1864  were  being  felt.  He  therefore  decided 
early  in  the  year  that  it  would  strengthen  him  to 
have  on  the  ticket  with  him  a  conspicuous  war 
Democrat  who  had  opposed  him  in  1860,  but  was 
now  in  the  military  service.  Hamlin  did  not  be 
long  in  this  class.  After  Butler  declined,  Lin 
coln  expressed  his  preference  for  Andrew  Johnson, 
war-governor  of  Tennessee.  He  summoned  Gen 
eral  Sickles  to  Washington,  and  sent  him  to 
Tennessee  to  make  a  confidential  report  on  John 
son's  record  as  military  governor.  The  report 
was  favorable,  and  relieved  the  President's  mind 
of  the  fear  that  charges  of  violence  and  despotism 
might  be  successfully  brought  against  Johnson 
during  the  campaign.  The  Wade— Davis  faction 
charged  that  Lincoln's  determination  not  to  have 


71:4.  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

V 

the  question  of  reconstruction  settled  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1864  by  Congress  was  caused  by  his  de 
sire  to  guard  .against  defeat  at  the  polls,  by 
putting  himself  in  a  position  to  have  the  votes 
of  certain  partly  reconstructed  Southern  states 
counted  if  it  became  necessary.  Wade  and  Davis 
published  an  attack  on  Lincoln  in  the  Tribune 
of  August  5  in  which  they  said,  "  The  Presi 
dent,  by  preventing  this  bill  from  becoming  a 
law,  holds  the  electoral  votes  of  the  Southern 
states  at  the  dictates  of  his  personal  ambition." 
The  most  promising  situation  was  in  Tennessee, 
but  McClure  believes  that  if .  the  contest  was 
close  Lincoln  intended  to  have' Louisiana,  Arkan 
sas,  and  West  Virginia.also  organized  into  some 
sort  of  state-hood.  He  had  delegates  elected 
from  these  states  to  the  national  convention,  and 
the  battle  for  their  admission  was  led  by  Lincoln's 
confidants.  Tennessee'siposition  being  the  strong 
est  it  was  chosen  for  the  test  fight.  The  oppo 
sition  came  from  the  anti-Johnson  men.  After  a 
struggle,  that  delegation  was  admitted,  and 'Lou 
isiana  and  Arkansas)  were  then  given  the  right  to 
representation  almost  as  a  matter  of  course.  Their 
votes  in  the  end  were  not  counted,  but  the  result 
might  have  been  different  had  they  been  needed. 
One  of  the  ways  in  which  Lincoln's  political 
shrewdness  was  shown  was  in  the  care  he  took 
to  consult  Cameron  early  on  this  matter  of  the 


RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  355 

vice-presidency.  Seward  and  Weed  were  both 
taken  early  into  the  movement  for  Johnson's 
nomination.  McClure  says  that  Lincoln's  friends 
Swett  and  Lamon  knew  nothing  of  the  selection 
until  within  a  day  or  two  of  the  convention.  Then 
Swett  said  to  the  President  that  if  it  were  known 
in  New  England  that  he  was  in  favor  of  leaving 
Hamlin  off  the  ticket,  "  it  would  raise  the  devil 
among  the  Yankees."  He  urged  that  New  Eng 
land  politicians  were  rankling  over  what  they 
deemed  Lincoln's  tardiness  about  slavery  and 
haste  about  reconstruction,  and  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  offend  them  further.  Swett  was 
persuaded  by  Lincoln,  however,  to  go  to  the 
convention,  prepared  to  support  Johnson  if  neces 
sary,  though  he  was  to  avoid  suspicion  by  having 
another  candidate  as  his  first  choice,  and  he  was 
not  to  reveal  the  President's  preference  for  John 
son.  According  to  Lamon,  Lincoln  said :  "  I 
will  address  a  letter  to  Lamon  here,  embodying 
my  views,  which  you,  McClure,  and  other  friends 
may  use  if  it  be  found  absolutely  necessary.  Other 
wise  it  may  be  better  that  I  should  not  appear 
on  the  stage  of  this  theatre."  Lamon  took  the 
letter  to  Baltimore,  but  found  no  need  of  it,  and 
it  was  then  returned  at  the  President's  request. 
Another  point  in  Johnson's  favor,  in  Lincoln's 
mind,  according  to  McClure,  was  that  he  believed 
the  election  of  a  Southern  man  to  the  vice- 


356  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

presidency  would  have  a  good  effect  in  England 
and  France.  Johnson  had  200  on  the  first  ballot, 
to  150  for  Hamlin  and  108  for  D.  S.  Dickinson, 
and  his  nomination  was  promptly  made  unani 
mous. 

The  Democrats  did  not  meet  until  the  end  of 
August,  when  they  nominated  General  McClellan 
on  a  platform  calling  the  war  policy  a  failure  and 
demanding  peace.  Before  that  they  devoted 
themselves  to  attacking  the  Republicans,  who 
were  badly  divided  among  themselves.  The  atti 
tude  of  Senator  Wade  was  described  by  Lincoln 
himself  to  Lamon,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
showed  his  way  of  treating  him.  Wade  had 
come  in  to  demand  the  dismissal  of  Grant.  In 
reply  to  one  of  his  remarks  Lincoln  said,  "  Sena 
tor,  that  reminds  me  of  a  story."  "  Yes,  yes," 
Wade  replied,  "  it  is  with  you,  sir,  all  story,  story ! 
You  are  the  father  of  every  military  blunder  that 
has  been,  made  during  the  war.  You  are  on  your 
road  to  hell,  sir,  with  this  government,  by  your 
obstinacy ;  and  you  are  not  a  mile  off  this  min 
ute."  Lincoln  answered,  "  Senator,  that  is  just 
about  the  distance  from  here  to  the  Capitol,  is  it 
not  ?  "  Wade,  as  Lincoln  put  it,  "grabbed  up  his 
hat  and  cane  and  went  away." 

The  President's  moods  about  the  outcome 
probably  varied  greatly.  According  to  one  re 
port  he  said  early  in  the  campaign :  — 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  357 

"  I  am  glad  you  have  come  in.  Lamon,  do  you 
know  that  '  we  have  met  the  enemy,  and  they  are 
ourn?'  I  think  the  cabal  of  obstructionists  'am 
busted  ! '  I  feel  certain  that  if  I  live,  I  am  going 
to  be  reflected.  Whether  I  deserve  to  be  or 
not,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say;  but  on  the  score 
even  of  remunerative  chances  for  speculative  ser 
vice,  I  now  am  inspired  with  the  hope  that  our 
disturbed  country  further  requires  the  valuable 
services  of  your  humble  servant.  '  Jordan  has 
been  a  hard  road  to  travel,'  but  I  feel  now  that, 
notwithstanding  the  enemies  I  have  made  and 
the  faults  I  have  committed,  I'll  be  dumped  on 
the  right  side  of  that  stream.  I  hope,  however, 
that  I  may  never  have  another  four  years  of  such 
anxiety,  tribulation,  and  abuse.  My  only  ambi 
tion  is  and  has  been  to  put  down  the  rebellion 
and  restore  peace ;  after  which  I  want  to  resign 
my  office,  go  abroad,  take  some  rest,  study  foreign 
governments,  see  something  of  foreign  life,  and 
in  my  old  age,  die  in  peace  with  all  of  the  good 
of  God's  creatures." 

On  the  other  hand,  on  August  23  he  prepared 
this  memorandum :  — 

"This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seems  ex 
ceedingly  probable  that  this  administration  will  not  be 
reflected.  Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so  cooperate  with 
the  President-elect  as  to  save  the  Union  between  the 


358  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

election  and  the  inauguration,  as  he  will  have  secured 
his  election  on  such  ground  that  he  cannot  possibly  save 
it  afterward." 

Nicolay  and  Hay,  who  publish  the  memoran 
dum,  also  report  the  following  later  remarks  on 
this  subject  at  a  cabinet  meeting :  — 

"  The  President  said :  '  You  will  remember  that  this 
was  written  at  the  time,  six  days  before  the  Chicago 
nominating  convention,  when  as  yet  we  had  no  adver 
sary,  and  seemed  to  have  no  friends.  I  then  solemnly 
resolved  on  the  course  of  action  indicated  in  this  paper. 
I  resolved,  in  case  of  the  election  of  General  McClellan, 
being  certain  that  he  would  be  the  candidate,  that  I 
would  see  him,  and  talk  matters  over  with  him.  I  would 
say :  "  General,  the  election  has  demonstrated  that  you 
are  stronger,  have  more  influence  with  the  American 
people,  than  I.  Now  let  us  together,  you  with  your  in 
fluence  and  I  with  all  the  executive  power  of  the  gov 
ernment,  try  to  save  the  country.  You  raise  as  many 
troops  as  you  possibly  can  for  this  final  trial,  and  I  will 
devote  all  my  energies  to  assist  and  finish  the  war."  : 

"  Seward  said,  '  And  the  general  would  have  answered 
you,  "  Yes,  yes,"  and  the  next  day  when  you  saw  him 
again  and  pressed  these  views  upon  him  he  would  have 
said,  "Yes,  yes;"  and  so  on  forever,  and  would  have 
done  nothing  at  all/ 

"  '  At  least,'  said  Lincoln,  '  I  should  have  done  my 
duty,  and  have  stood  clear  before  my  own  conscience.' >: 

Before  McClellan's  nomination  and  after,  Lin 
coln  pushed  constantly  the  argument  that  a  vote 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  359 

for  union  was  in  all  reasonableness  a  vote  for  him, 
and  he  tried  constantly  to  bring  the  meaning  of 
union  home  to  his  hearers.  To  one  regiment  he 
said :  - 

"  I  happen,  temporarily,  to  occupy  this  White  House. 
I  am  a  living  witness  that  any  one  of  your  children  may 
look  to  come  here  as  my  father's  child  has.  It  is  in 
order  that  each  one  of  you  may  have,  through  this  free 
government  which  we  have  enjoyed,  an  open  field  and 
a  fair  chance  for  your  industry,  enterprise,  and  intelli 
gence  ;  that  you  may  all  have  equal  privileges  in  the 
race  of  life,  with  all  its  desirable  human  aspirations." 

To  another  regiment :  — 

"  But  this  government  must  be  preserved  in  spite  of 
the  acts  of  any  man  or  set  of  men.  It  is  worthy  of  your 
every  effort.  Nowhere  in  the  world  is  presented  a  gov 
ernment  of  so  much  liberty  and  equality.  To  the  hum 
blest  and  poorest  amongst  us  are  held  out  the  highest 
privileges  and  positions.  The  present  moment  finds  me 
at  the  White  House,  yet  there  is  as  good  a  chance  for 
your  children  as  there  was  for  my  father's." 

The  soldiers'  vote  was  an  element  on  which 
Lincoln  put  a  good  deal  of  his  effort.  To  Gen 
eral  Sherman  he  wrote,  September  19:  — 

"The  state  election  of  Indiana  occurs  on  the  nth  of 
October,  and  the  loss  of  it,  to  the  friends  of  the  govern 
ment,  would  go  far  toward  losing  the  whole  Union  cause. 


360  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  bad  effect  upon  the  November  election,  and  espe 
cially  the  giving  the  state  government  to  those  who  will 
oppose  the  war  in  every  possible  way,  are  too  much  to 
risk,  if  it  can  possibly  be  avoided.  The  draft  proceeds, 
notwithstanding  its  strong  tendency  to  lose  us  the  state. 
Indiana  is  the  only  important  state,  voting  in  October, 
whose  soldiers  cannot  vote  in  the  field.  Anything  you 
can  safely  do  to  let  her  soldiers,  or  any  part  of  them,  go 
home  and  vote  at  the  state  election  will  be  greatly  in 
point.  They  need  not  remain  for  the  presidential  elec 
tion,  but  may  return  to  you  at  once.  This  is  in  no  sense 
an  order,  but  is  merely  intended  to  impress  you  with  the 
importance,  to  the  army  itself,  of  your  doing  all  you 
safely  can,  yourself  being  the  judge  of  what  you  can 
safely  do." 

In  Pennsylvania  the  Republican  state  committee 
advised  the  President  to  guard  against  bad  results 
from  McClellan's  popularity  there  by  asking  Grant 
to  furlough  some  thousands  of  Pennsylvania  sol 
diers,  not  for  their  votes,  since  they  could  vote  in 
the  field,  but  for  the  influence  of  their  presence 
during  the  campaign,  and  for  the  prestige  of  car 
rying  the  home  election  without  the  "  bayonet 
vote,"  as  the  vote  in  the  army  was  called.  Lin 
coln  said  he  was  doubtful  about  Grant's  attitude 
in.  such  a  matter.  The  delegate  from  the  com 
mittee  then  suggested  that  it  be  done  through 
Meade,  the  direct  commander  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  Sheridan ;  and  one  of  the  assistant 
secretaries  of  war  was  sent  with  an  unofficial  mes- 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  OF  LINCOLN  TAKEN  IN  1864  AND  PRESENTED  BY  HIM 
TO  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN. 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  361 

sage  to  Meade,  and  another  agent  to  Sheridan, 
with  the  desired  result.  McClure  says  it  was  at 
Lincoln's  special  request  that  General  Logan  left 
his  command  and  the  march  to  the  sea  in  order 
to  stump  Illinois  and  Indiana  in  this  campaign. 
General  Carl  Schurz  wished  to  perform  a  similar 
service,  but  he  was  a  horse  of  a  somewhat  differ 
ent  color,  and  he  was  at  first  told  on  high  grounds 
to  remain  with  his  command.  Years  later  Grant 
said  to  McClure  that  he  supposed  no  one  would 
have  doubted  his  desire  for  Lincoln's  reelection. 
"  It  would,"  he  added,  "  have  been  obviously  unbe 
coming  on  my  part  to  have  given  a  public  expres 
sion  against  a  general  whom  I  had  succeeded  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army."  When  Wash- 
burne  of  Illinois  asked  Grant  to  publish  a  letter 
in  favor  of  Lincoln's  election,  the  general  replied 
that  he  thought  that  "  for  the  President  to  answer 
all  the  charges  the  opposition  would  bring  against 
him  would  be  like  setting  a  maiden  to  work  to 
prove  her  chastity."  Several  acquaintances  say 
that  Lincoln  felt  hurt  by  Grant's  aloofness,  but 
this  interpretation  of  whatever  the  President  may 
have  said  is  improbable,  and  in  contradiction  to 
his  intellectual  magnanimity.  Grant  at  this  period 
had  a  great  distrust  of  politicians  in  general.  Let 
ters  exchanged  between  him  and  Sherman  show 
that  both  generals  looked  upon  Washington  as  a 
hotbed  of  danger  and  corruption.  When  Grant 


362  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

was  appointed  lieutenant  general,  Lincoln  asked 
him  to  make  a  short  speech  in  answer  to  his  few 
words  at  the  formal  presentation,  and  in  it  to  say 
something  to  prevent  jealousy  from  any  other 
generals,  and  to  put  the  new  commander  on  good 
terms  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Grant 
made  his  little  reply,  and  entirely  ignored  the 
President's  suggestions,  but  on  the  contrary  rather 
emphasized  the  fact  that  he  felt  the  responsibility 
centred  directly  on  himself  and  all  the  armies. 
There  was  nothing  about  other  generals,  and 
nothing  about  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  His 
reason  for  staying  East  was  that  he  believed  "  no 
one  else  could  probably  resist  the  pressure  that 
would  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  desist  from 
his  own  plans  and  pursue  others."  It  has  been 
said  that  he  made  a  special  stipulation  against 
interference,  particularly  by  Stanton,  and  that  he 
was  warned  not  to  talk  over  his  plans  with  Lin 
coln  ;  but  the  way  he  treats  both  men  in  his  own 
written  words  shows  his  sympathy  with  the  Presi 
dent  and  his  hostility  to  the  Secretary.  Lincoln's 
own  position  toward  his  new  general  is  honestly 
set  forth  in  this  letter  of  April  30 :  - 

"  Not  expecting  to  see  you  again  before  the  spring 
campaign  opens,  I  wish  to  express  in  this  way  my  en 
tire  satisfaction  with  what  you  have  done  up  to  this 
time,  so  far  as  I  understand  it.  The  particulars  of  your 
plans  I  neither  know  nor  seek  to  know.  You  are  vigi- 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  363 

lant  and  self-reliant ;  and,  pleased  with  this,  I  wish  not 
to  obtrude  any  constraints  or  restraints  upon  you.  While 
I  am  very  anxious  that  any  great  disaster  or  capture  of 
our  men  in  great  numbers  shall  be  avoided,  I  know  these 
points  are  less  likely  to  escape  your  attention  than  they 
would  be  mine.  If  there  is  anything  wanting  which  is 
within  my  power  to  give,  do  not  fail  to  let  me  know  it. 
And  now,  with  a  brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God 
sustain  you." 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  man  who,  accustomed 
to  exercise  authority  on  generals  who  needed  it, 
could  treat  in  this  manner  the  first  commander 
who  had  an  equally  firm  character  of  his  own, 
would  feel  any  real  resentment  if  that  general's 
distrust  of  political  machinery  made  him  give  less 
assistance  in  the  election  than  the  President 
thought  due  to  the  cause.  Lincoln  knew  how 
to  treat  each  man.  He  let  Grant  alone  but  he 
put  the  screws  on  to  many  others.  The  Secre 
tary  of  State  of  New  York  during  this  campaign 
gives  this  account  of  what  befell  him  in  one  of 
his  functions :  — 

"  A  law  was  passed  by  the  legislature,  which 
was  Republican,  to  take  the  soldier's  vote.  Well, 
ordinarily  this  duty  would  have  devolved  upon 
the  governor.  Because  the  legislature  in  this 
instance  imposed  it  upon  me,  I  spent  much  time 
in  Washington  endeavoring  to  get  the  data  to 
send  out  the  necessary  papers  enabling  the  New 


364  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

York  soldiers  to  vote:  Under  the  act  each  soldier 
was  to  make  out  his  ballot,  and  it  was  to  be  cer 
tified  by  the  commanding  officer  of  his  company 
or  regiment,  and  then  sent  to  some  friend  at  his 
last  voting  place  to  be  deposited  on  election  day. 
It  was  therefore  necessary  for  me  to  ascertain 
the  location  of  every  New  York  company  and 
regiment.  They  were  scattered  all  over  the 
South,  and  in  all  the  armies.  Secretary  Stanton 
refused  to  give  me  any  information  whatever, 
and,  finally,  with  a  great  deal  of  temper,  informed 
me  one  day  that  information  of  that  character 
given  to  politicians  would  reach  the  newspapers, 
and  through  them  the  enemy,  and  in  that  way 
the  Confederates  would  know  by  the  location  of 
the  New  York  troops  precisely  the  condition  and 
situation  of  every  army,  corps,  brigade,  and  bat 
tery.  As  I  was  leaving  the  War  Department  I 
met  Mr.  Washburne  and  the  marshal  of  the  dis 
trict  coming  in.  Mr.  Washburne  said,  '  Depew, 
you  seem  to  be  in  a  state  of  considerable  excite 
ment.'  I  told  him  of  my  interview  with  Mr. 
Stanton,  and  that  I  was  going  home  to  New 
York,  and  would  publish  in  the  morning  papers 
a  card  that  the  soldiers'  votes  could  not  be  taken, 
owing  to  the  action  of  Secretary  Stanton.  And 
I  added,  '  I  can  inform  you  that  a  failure  to  get 
them  will  lose  Mr.  Lincoln  the  electoral  vote  of 
New  York.'  Mr.  Washburne  said:  'You  don't 


RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  365 

know  Lincoln  ;  he  is  as  good  a  politician  as  he  is 
a  President,  and  if  there  was  no  other  way  to  get 
those  votes  he  would  go  round  with  a  carpet-bag 
and  collect  them  himself.'  He  then  asked  me  to 
wait  until  the  President  could  be  informed  as  to 
the  facts.  I  stood  in  the  corridor  leading  to  Mr. 
Stanton's  room,  and  in  about  fifteen  minutes  an 
orderly  came  out  and  said  the  Secretary  wanted 
to  see  Mr.  Depew.  I  went  in,  and  Secretary 
Stanton  met  me  with  the  most  cordial  politeness; 
inquired  when  I  arrived  in  Washington,  if  I  had 
any  business  with  his  department,  and  whether 
he  could  do  anything  for  me.  I  restated  to  him 
what  I  had  already  stated  at  least  half  a  dozen 
times  before.  He  sent  me  with  an  order  so  per 
emptory  to  the  head  of  one  of  the  bureaus,  that  I 
left  Washington  that  night  with  a  list  and  loca 
tion  of  every  organization  of  New  York  troops." 

Another  example  of  Lincoln's  political  dexter 
ity  in  this  fight  for  reelection  is  shown  by  his 
offer  of  the  French  mission  to  James  Gordon 
Bennett.  The  Herald  had  favored  McClellan's 
nomination  by  the  Democrats.  After  McClellan 
was  nominated,  Lincoln  wrote  in  his  own  hand 
to  Bennett  making  this  offer,  just  the  kind  of 
attention  to  flatter  the  well-known  nature  of  the 
powerful  editor.  Bennett  responded  in  a  round 
about,  but  obvious  manner.  First  he  suggested 
an  entirely  new  nomination.  "  Lincoln  has  proved 


366  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

a  failure,"  he  said  in  one  editorial.  "  Fremont  has 
proved  a  failure.  Let  us  have  a  new  candidate." 
The  Herald,  not  obtaining  its  new  man,  as  it  had 
not  expected  to,  came  out  squarely  for  Lincoln. 
Bennett  declined  the  office,  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  this  famous  offer,  which  is  here  told 
in  the  form  given  by  Colonel  McClure,  was  made 
by  the  President  for  the  direct  purpose  of  secur 
ing  the  Heralcfs  support.  There  is  also  little 
doubt  that  when  Charles  A.  Dana  says  that  the 
whole  power  of  the  War  Department  was  used 
to  secure  Lincoln's  reelection  he  calmly  states 
the  facts  exactly  as  they  were.  Purists  may  turn 
pale  at  these  things  and  try  to  pull  the  blankets 
over  any  exhibition  of  them,  but  the  world  loves 
and  admires  the  great  War  President  as  he  was 
and  desires  no  prettified  portrait  of  him.  That 
his  Jesuitical  ability  to  use  the  fox's  skin  when 
the  lion's  proved  too  short  was  one  part  of  his 
enormous  value  to  the  land,  no  competent  thinker 
can  doubt. 

Opposite  this  brilliant  ability  in  political  manip 
ulation  stands  another  picture,  not  the  contra 
diction  of  it  but  the  complement.  During  those 
same  long  and  dubious  months  in  which  Lincoln 
pulled  every  wire  pointing  to  success,  we  see  him 
giving  some  of  his  most  unmistakable  proofs  of 
moral  independence,  trust  in  the  right,  and  politi 
cal  courage.  He  let  the  draft  go  on  in  spite  of 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  3^7 

all  the  howls.  What  use  to  him,  he  asked,  was  a 
second  term  if  he  had  no  country?  When  Gen 
eral  Grant  asked  for  300,000  soldiers  Lincoln 
was  able  to  reply  that  he  had  already  called  for 
500,000.  How  he  treated  some  protests  against 
this  call  is  well  shown  in  an  account  which  Joseph 
Medill,  the  editor  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  gave 
to  Miss  Tarbell  shortly  before  his  death :  — 

"  In  1864,  when  the  call  for  extra  troops  came,  Chi 
cago  revolted.  She  had  already  sent  22,000  men  up  to 
that  time,  and  was  drained.  When  the  new  call  came, 
there  were  no  young  men  to  go,  no  aliens  except  what 
were  bought.  The  citizens  held  a  mass-meeting,  and 
appointed  three  persons,  of  whom  I  was  one,  to  go  to 
Washington  and  ask  Stanton  to  give  Cook  County  a 
new  enrolment.  I  begged  off,  but  the  committee  in 
sisted,  so  I  went.  On  reaching  Washington,  we  went 
to  Stanton  with  our  statement.  He  refused  entirely  to 
give  us  the  desired  aid.  Then  we  went  to  Lincoln.  '  I 
cannot  do  it,'  he  said,  '  but  I  will  go  with  you  to  Stan- 
ton  and  hear  the  arguments  of  both  sides.'  So  we  all 
went  over  to  the  War  Department  together.  Stanton 
and  General  Fry  were  there,  and  they,  of  course,  con 
tended  that  the  quota  should  not  be  changed.  The 
argument  went  on  for  some  time,  and  finally  was  re 
ferred  to  Lincoln,  who  had  been  sitting  silently  listen 
ing.  I  shall  never  forget  how  he  suddenly  lifted  his 
head  and  turned  on  us  a  black  and  frowning  face. 

" '  Gentlemen,'  he  said,  in  a  voice  full  of  bitterness, 
1  after  Boston,  Chicago  has  been  the  chief  instrument  in 
bringing  this  war  on  the  country.  The  Northwest  has 


368  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

opposed  the  South  as  New  England  has  opposed  the 
South.  It  is  you  who  are  largely  responsible  for  mak 
ing  blood  flow  as  it  has.  You  called  for  war  until  we 
had  it.  You  called  for  emancipation,  and  I  have  given 
it  to  you.  Whatever  you  have  asked  you  have  had. 
Now  you  come  here  begging  to  be  let  off  from  the  call 
for  men  which  I  have  made  to  carry  out  the  war  you 
have  demanded.  You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  your 
selves.  I  have  a  right  to  expect  better  things  of  you. 
Go  home,  and  raise  your  6000  extra  men.  And  you, 
Medill,  you  are  acting  like  a  coward.  You  and  your 
Tribune  have  had  more  influence  than  any  paper  in  the 
Northwest  in  making  this  war.  You  can  influence  great 
masses,  and  yet  you  cry  to  be  spared  at  a  moment  when 
your  cause  is  suffering.  Go  home  and  send  us  those 
men.' 

"  I  couldn't  say  anything.  It  was  the  first  time  I 
ever  was  whipped,  and  I  didn't  have  an  answer.  We 
all  got  up  and  went  out,  and  when  the  door  closed,  one 
of  my  colleagues  said  :  '  Well,  gentlemen,  the  old  man  is 
right.  We  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  ourselves.  Let  us 
never  say  anything  about  this,  but  go  home  and  raise 
the  men.'  And  we  did  —  6000  men  —  making  28,000 
in  the  war  from  a  city  of  156,000.  But  there  might 
have  been  crape  on  every  door  almost  in  Chicago,  for 
every  family  had  lost  a  son  or  a  husband.  I  lost  two 
brothers.  It  was  hard  for  the  mothers." 

Politicians  from  all  over  the  country  begged  Lin 
coln  to  suspend  the  draft  until  after  the  election. 
Sherman,  on  the  contrary,  telegraphed  from  the 
field  that  if  the  President  modified  it  to  the  ex- 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  369 

tent  of  one  man  the  army  would  vote  against 
him.  This  was  one  of  the  cases  where  the 
right  was  clear,  and  Lincoln  did  not  know  a 
moment's  hesitation. 

Perfect  dexterity  was  shown  by  him  in  his 
manipulation  of  the  peace  cranks.  The  schemes 
for  reconciliation  were  as  numerous  as  they  were 
futile.  Several  came  to  a  head  during  the  most 
uncertain  part  of  the  campaign.  One  was  initi 
ated  by  a  man  named  Jaques,  who  thought  that  if 
he  could  only  see  Davis  everything  would  be  all 
right.  Lincoln  refused  to  let  him  speak  for  the 
administration,  but  gave  his  ideas  privately  and 
allowed  him  to  go  as  a  citizen  accompanied  by  a 
journalist  friend  named  Gilmore,  who  has  left  in  his 
memoirs  a  full  account  of  what  happened.  Davis 
was  perfectly  firm  that  any  peace  proposals  must 
proceed  on  the  basis  of  recognizing  the  indepen 
dence  of  the  Confederacy.  When  Gilmore  talked 
with  Lincoln  the  President  at  once  took  control 
of  the  publication  of  the  facts  about  Davis's  atti 
tude,  which  was  just  what  he  expected  and  de 
sired.  It  was  to  be  written  up  by  Gilmore  for 
the  Atlantic,  but  as  that  periodical  could  not 
print  the  article  for  some  time,  and  as  immediate 
publication  would  have  a  good  effect,  it  was  pro 
posed  to  put  a  card  into  a  Boston  paper  giving 
the  central  demand  of  the  Southern  President. 
"That  is  it,"  said  Lincoln,  "put  Davis's  'we  are 

2B 


3/0  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

not  fighting  for  slavery,  we  are  fighting  for  in 
dependence,'  into  the  card,  that  is  enough ;  and 
send  me  the  proof  of  what  goes  into  the  Atlan 
tic.  Don't  let  it  appear  till  I  return  the  proof. 
Some  day  all  this  will  come  out,  but  just  now 
we  must  use  discretion."  The  President  retained 
the  Atlantic  proofs  seven  days,  and  struck  out  a 
full  page  and  a  half,  including  a  statement  of  the 
terms  which  he  was  willing  to  give  the  rebels  and 
all  references  to  compensation  for  slaves. 

When  Henry  J.  Raymond,  chairman  of  the 
National  Executive  Committee  of  the  Republican 
party,  made  similar  proposals,  Lincoln  took  the 
same  method,  offering  to  let  him  execute  his  own 
schemes,  which  treatment  stopped  Raymond. 
Horace  Greeley  had  a  few  weeks  before  been 
impressed  by  the  statements  of  some  pretended 
Confederate  emissaries,  who  said  they  were  au 
thorized  to  treat  for  peace,  and  the  editor  made 
a  great  noise  about  it.  Lincoln  easily  saw  through 
the  sham,  but  Greeley  was  so  busily  proving  to 
the  public  that  the  administration  had  no  wish 
for  peace  that  the  President  sent  him  to  confer 
with  these  creatures,  and,  although  the  resulting 
fiasco  did  not  enlighten  his  obstinate  soul,  it  had 
its  effect  on  the  public.  In  the  following  year, 
when  all  considerations  of  reelection  had  passed, 
and  the  end  of  the  war  was  in  sight,  General 
Blair  hatched  another  peace  scheme.  Lincoln 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  371 

would  not  listen  to  it,  but  let  him  go  South  to 
talk  with  Davis,  and  his  visit  only  showed  that 
the  Confederate  president  was  determined  to 
insist  on  recognition  as  an  independent  nation, 
one  of  the  points  on  which  Lincoln,  of  course, 
would  not  yield  an  inch.  He  decided  finally  to 
meet  some  Southern  commissioners  nominated 
by  Davis,  and  to  them  he  insisted  that  he  could 
make  no  agreement  with  "  parties  in  arms  against 
the  government."  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  one  of  the 
commissioners,  mentioned  as  precedents  certain 
doings  between  Charles  I.  and  his  rebellious  sub 
jects.  Lincoln  replied  that  on  historical  matters 
he  must  refer  to  Seward.  "  All  I  distinctly  recol 
lect  about  the  case  of  Charles  I.  is  that  he  lost 
his  head,"  he  remarked.  During  the  conference 
he  found  occasion  to  say  that  the  rebel  leaders 
had  forfeited  all  right  to  immunity  from  punish 
ment  for  the  highest  crime  known  to  the  law. 
There  was  a  pause.  At  length  Hunter  said: 
"  Then,  Mr.  President,  if  we  understand  you  cor 
rectly,  you  think  that  we  of  the  Confederacy 
have  committed  treason ;  that  we  are  traitors  to 
your  government;  that  we  have  forfeited  our 
rights,  and  are  proper  subjects  for  the  hangman. 
Is  not  that  about  what  your  words  imply  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Lincoln,  "  you  have  stated  the 
proposition  better  than  I  did.  That  is  about  the 
size  of  it." 


372  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

There  was  another  pause,  after  which  Hunter, 
with  a  pleasant  smile,  replied :  "  Well,  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  we  have  about  concluded  that  we  shall  not 
be  hanged  as  long  as  you  are  President,  if  we 
behave  ourselves." 

One  of  the  hardest  attacks  for  Lincoln  to  parry, 
during  the  campaign  of  1864,  related  to  the  negro 
question.  The  Democrats  kept  strenuously  an 
nouncing  that  the  war  was  now  being  conducted 
not  for  union  but  for  emancipation.  Lincoln  had 
so  often  said  the  opposite  that  it  was  difficult  to 
admit  now,  in  the  midst  of  a  campaign,  that 
negro  freedom  was  a  necessary  condition  of  peace, 
although  he  knew  it  was.  In  April  he  had  writ 
ten  :  "  To  this  day,  I  have  done  no  official  act 
in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment  and 
feeling  on  slavery."  He  then  told  how  events 
had  finally  forced  him  to  emancipation  and  arm 
ing  the  negroes,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  for  com 
pensation  and  all  his  interference  with  military 
emancipation  by  generals  early  in  the  war. 

"  In  telling  this  tale  I  attempt  no  compliment  to  my 
own  sagacity.  I  claim  not  to  have  controlled  events, 
but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controlled  me. 
Now,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the  nation's 
condition  is  not  what  either  party,  or  any  man,  devised 
or  expected.  God  alone  can  claim  it.  Whither  it  is 
tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now  wills  the  removal  of 
a  great  wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we  of  the  North,  as 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  373 

well  as  you  of  the  South,  shall  pay  fairly  for  our  com 
plicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  history  will  find  therein 
new  cause  to  attest  and  revere  the  justice  and  goodness 
of  God." 

Yet  he  found  this  no  easy  position  to  maintain. 
It  is  never  a  soft  task  to  explain  to  the  public 
that  learning  by  experience  and  changing  with 
the  facts  is  not  inconsistency.  He  spoke  as  little 
as  he  conveniently  could  of  the  direct  fact  that 
negro  freedom  must  now  be  included  in  any  ar 
rangement  for  peace,  but  he  did  argue  often  in 
favor  of  his  wisdom  in  arming  the  blacks  and  of 
the  justice  of  emancipating  them. 

"The  world,"  he  said  in  April,  "has  never  had  a 
good  definition  of  the  word  ' liberty/  and  the  American 
people,  just  now,  are  much  in  want  of  one.  We  all  de 
clare  for  liberty ;  but  in  using  the  same  word  we  do  not 
all  mean  the  same  thing.  With  some  the  word  'liberty' 
may  mean  for  each  man  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  him 
self,  and  the  product  of  his  labor ;  while  with  others  the 
same  word  may  mean  for  some  men  to  do  as  they  please 
with  other  men,  and  the  product  of  other  men's  labor." 

In  the  same  address  he  went  so  far  as  to  prom 
ise  revenge  if  the  rumors  of  Fort  Pillow  massa 
cres  turned  out  to  be  true.  An  unfinished  draft 
of  a  letter,  dated  August  6,  says  :  - 

"  The  President  has  received  yours  of  yesterday  and 
is  kindly  paying  attention  to  it.  As  it  is  my  business  to 


374  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

assist  him  whenever  I  can,  I  will  thank  you  to  inform 
me,  for  his  use,  whether  you  are  either  a  white  man  or 
black  man,  because  in  either  case  you  cannot  be  regarded 
as  an  entirely  impartial  judge.  It  may  be  that  you  be 
long  to  a  third  or  fourth  class  of  yellow  or  red  men,  in 
which  case  the  impartiality  of  your  judgment  would  be 
more  apparent." 

His  sharpest  repartees  were  usually  left  unsaid. 
The  next  month  he  made  this  vigorous  statement 
of  the  military  impossibility  of  escaping  emanci 
pation  :  — 

"  An  armistice  —  a  cessation  of  hostilities  —  is  the  end 
of  the  struggle,  and  the  insurgents  would  be  in  peaceable 
possession  of  all  that  has  been  struggled  for.  Any  dif 
ferent  policy  in  regard  to  the  colored  man  deprives  us 
of  his  help,  and  this  is  more  than  we  can  bear.  We 
cannot  spare  the  hundred  and  forty  or  fifty  thousand 
now  serving  us  as  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers.  This 
is  not  a  question  of  sentiment  or  taste,  but  one  of  physi 
cal  force,  which  may  be  measured  and  estimated  as 
horse-power  and  steam-power  are  measured  and  esti 
mated.  Keep  it  and  you  can  save  the  Union.  Throw 
it  away,  and  the  Union  goes  with  it.  Nor  is  it  possible 
for  any  administration  to  retain  the  service  of  these  peo 
ple  with  the  express  or  implied  understanding  that,  upon 
the  first  convenient  occasion,  they  are  to  be  reenslaved. 
It  cannot  be,  and  it  ought  not  to  be." 

More  than  once  he  said  he  was  willing  to  stake 
his  election  on  these  principles. 


RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  375 

First,  however,  among  all  political  dangers  lay, 
as  usual,  military  reverses.  Sherman  fought  hard 
through  the  spring  without  notable  victories. 
Grant  had  Lee  in  a  position  which  meant  death, 
but  the  cost  was  awful,  and  the  North  could  not 
even  see  how  inevitable  it  was  that  her  armies 
should  now  win.  In  this  situation  Lincoln  be 
haved  perfectly.  He  knew  that  Grant's  military 
ideas  might  prevent  his  reelection,  but  he  knew 
also  that  the  only  right  step  was  to  let  the  bloody 
fight  go  on  under  the  conduct  of  the  commander. 
After  the  fearful  struggle  in  the  Wilderness, 
Schuyler  Colfax  heard  Lincoln  exclaim :  "  Why 
do  we  suffer  reverses  after  reverses  ?  Could  we 
have  avoided  this  terrible,  bloody  war?  Was  it 
not  forced  upon  us  ?  Is  it  ever  to  end  ? "  A 
little  after,  however,  he  referred  with  hope  to 
Grant's  famous  words,  "  I  shall  fight  it  out  on 
this  line  if  it  takes  all  summer,"  and  in  June  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  say  in  a  speech  at  a  fair :  — 

"  We  accepted  this  war  for  an  object,  a  worthy  object, 
and  the  war  will  end  when  that  object  is  attained. 
Under  God,  I  hope  it  never  will  end  until  that  time. 
Speaking  of  the  present  campaign,  General  Grant  is  re 
ported  to  have  said,  '  I  am  going  through  on  this  line  if 
it  takes  all  summer.'  This  war  has  taken  three  years ; 
it  was  begun  or  accepted  upon  the  line  of  restoring  the 
national  authority  over  the  whole  national  domain,  and 
for  the  American  people,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  en- 


3/6  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

ables  me  to  speak,  I  say  we  are  going  through  on  this 
line  if  it  takes  three  years  more." 

It  will  be  seen  that  these  two  firm  and  clear 
minds  understood  each  other.  When  Grant 
failed  in  his  assaults  on  the  desperate  Confeder 
ate  army  in  those  jungles  of  the  South,  instead 
of  marching  toward  Washington  he  marched  by 
flank  movements  still  nearer  Richmond  and 
the  Northern  soldiers  cheered.  Asked  by  Jus 
tin  McCarthy  in  after  years  what  he  deemed  the 
first  requisite  of  a  general,  Grant  replied  "pa 
tience."  With  that  he  mixed  freely  the  other 
virtue  of  energetic  aggressiveness.  Even  the 
frightful  defeat  at  Cold  Harbor  did  not  dazzle 
him.  From  beginning  to  end  of  the  series  of 
unexampled  battles  he  sent  Lincoln  telegrams  of 
encouragement,  assuring  him  that  final  victory 
became  more  certain  every  day;  that  his  army 
had  the  feeling  of  conquerors  and  the  Southern 
ers  the  feeling  of  defeat ;  and  that  much  of  the 
credit  was  due  to  the  prompt  reinforcements  and 
supplies  from  Washington.  After  McClellan  and 
the  rest,  it  is,  perhaps,  safe  to  infer  that  Lincoln 
enjoyed  this  tone.  June  15  he  telegraphed:  — 

"I  have  just  received  your  despatch  of  i  P.M.  yester 
day.  I  begin  to  see  it;  you  will  succeed.  God  bless 
you  all." 


RENOMINATION   AND    REELECTION  377 

The  next  month  he  again  became  anxious  about 
the  capital.  It  was  not  personal  fear,  but  a  knowl 
edge  of  the  political  effect  the  capture  of  Wash 
ington  would  have.  At  first  Grant  thought 
Early's  designs  on  the  Northern  capital  were  not 
serious,  but  he  soon  changed  his  mind,  and  Lin 
coln  was  relieved,  although  he  left  everything  to 
the  general.  He  was  also  glad  to  hear  Grant 
say  that  he  should  try  to  get  along  without  such 
heavy  losses,  although  in  that  matter,  too,  he  made 
no  interference.  Grant  finally  sent  Sheridan  to 
take  care  of  the  situation  in  the  Shenandoah. 
Lincoln  was  a  little  disappointed,  as  he  hoped 
for  the  commander  himself,  but  he  soon  learned 
more  about  Grant's  young  favorite.  His  cipher 
despatch  of  August  3  to  Grant  was  not  needed, 
but  it  shows  his  state  of  mind :  — 

"  I  have  seen  your  despatch  in  which  you  say :  '  I 
want  Sheridan  put  in  command  of  all  the  troops  in 
the  field,  with  instructions  to  put  himself  south  of  the 
enemy,  and  follow  him  to  the  death.  Wherever  the 
enemy  goes,  let  our  troops  go  also.'  This,  I  think, 
is  exactly  right  as  to  how  our  forces  should  move ;  but 
please  look  over  the  despatches  you  may  have  received 
from  here,  ever  since  you  made  that  order,  and  dis 
cover,  if  you  can,  that  there  is  any  idea  in  the  head  of 
any  one  here  of  '  putting  our  army  south  of  the  enemy,' 
or  of  following  him  to  the  'death,'  in  any  direction.  I 
repeat  to  you,  it  will  never  be  done  nor  attempted,  un 
less  you  watch  it  every  day  and  hour,  and  force  it." 


378  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

He  soon  came  to  agree  more  actively  with 
Grant's  view  of  the  situation.  On  August  17 
he  telegraphed :  — 

"  I  have  seen  your  despatch  expressing  your  unwill 
ingness  to  break  your  hold  where  you  are.  Neither 
am  I  willing.  Hold  on  with  a  bulldog  grip,  and  chew 
and  choke  as  much  as  possible." 

He  ventured  to  suggest  that  Sheridan  might 
be  reenforced  and  an  attack  made  on  Early. 
Eight  days  later  he  had  occasion  to  telegraph 
Sheridan  thus:  — 

"  Have  just  heard  of  your  great  victory.  God  bless 
you  all,  officers  and  men.  Strongly  inclined  to  come  up 
and  see  you." 

Everybody  knows  the  final  outcome,  but  prob 
ably  only  students  of  history  realize  how  much 
Sheridan  had  to  do  with  Lincoln's  reelection. 
His  brilliant  series  of  victories  over  Early 
changed  the  whole  moral  atmosphere  at  the 
North.  The  picturesqueness  of  the  young 
leader,  quietly  riding  back  from  Washington, 
finding  his  own  demoralized  troops  flying  along 
the  road,  rallying  them,  making  them  decide  on 
reflection,  as  he  puts  it,  that  they  had  not  done 
themselves  justice,  riding  up  and  down  the  lines, 
assuring  his  men  that  the  captured  guns  and 
camps  must  be  recaptured,  and  wrecking  Early 's 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  3/9 

army  so  completely  that  it  never  counted  in  the 
history  of  the  war  again,  was  the  kind  of  an  ap 
parition  the  President  needed.  Sheridan's  de 
spatch  to  Grant,  "We  have  just  sent  them 
whirling  through  Winchester,  and  we  after  them 
to-morrow "  put  one  of  the  finishing  strokes 
on  the  political  campaign.  It  went  to  every 
home  in  the  North  and  brought  the  flush  of 
pride  to  every  cheek.  When  Lincoln  had  read 
the  telegrams  relating  the  last  fight  with  Early, 
he  told  his  companions  about  the  man  who 
filled  a  piece  of  punk  with  powder,  set  it  on 
fire,  clapped  it  under  a  biscuit,  and  gave  it  to  a 
dog.  "  As  for  the  dog,  as  a  dog,  I  was  never  able 
to  find  him,"  said  the  man. 

Farragut  had  already  taken  Mobile  Bay  and 
Sherman  had  just  captured  Atlanta.  "  We  are 
coming,  father  Abraham,  300,000  strong "  went 
through  the  land  after  Atlanta.  "  Sherman  and 
Farragut,"  said  Seward  in  a  speech  at  Chicago, 
"  have  knocked  the  planks  out  of  the  Chicago 
platform,"  —  that  platform  which  declared  the 
war  a  failure.  Sheridan  demolished  whatever 
was  left  of  it.  When  Lincoln,  on  November  8, 
went  to  read  the  telegrams,  it  was  without  a  rea 
sonable  doubt  of  the  result. 

He  stayed  in  Stanton's  office,  following  the 
returns.  When  there  was  a  lull  in  the  news  he 
read  aloud  the  writings  of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby. 


380  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

The  result  of  the  election  was  the  most  complete 
victory  ever  won  in  a  presidential  contest  in 
America. 

Two  days  after  he  told  some  serenaders  what 
his  election  meant :  — 

"  It  has  long  been  a  grave  question  whether  any  gov 
ernment,  not  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  people,  can 
be  strong  enough  to  maintain  its  existence  in  great  emer 
gencies.  On  this  point  the  present  rebellion  brought 
our  republic  to  a  severe  test,  and  a  presidential  election 
occurring  in  regular  course  during  the  rebellion,  added 
not  a  little  to  the  strain. 

"  If  the  loyal  people  united  were  put  to  the  utmost 
of  their  strength  by  the  rebellion,  must  they  not  fail 
when  divided  and  partially  paralyzed  by  a  political  war 
among  themselves  ?  But  the  election  was  a  necessity. 
We  cannot  have  free  government  without  elections ; 
and  if  the  rebellion  could  force  us  to  forego  or  post 
pone  a  national  election,  it  might  fairly  claim  to  have 
already  conquered  and  ruined  us.  The  strife  of  the 
election  is  but  human  nature  practically  applied  to  the 
facts  of  the  case.  What  has  occurred  in  this  case  must 
ever  recur  in  similar  cases.  Human  nature  will  not 
change.  In  any  future  great  national  trial,  compared 
with  the  men  of  this,  we  shall  have  as  weak  and  as 
strong,  as  silly  and  as  wise,  as  bad  and  as  good.  Let 
us,  therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this  as  philosophy 
to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as  wrongs  to 
be  revenged.  But  the  election,  along  with  its  inciden 
tal  and  undesirable  strife,  has  done  good  too.  It  has 
demonstrated  that  a  people's  government  can  sustain  a 


RENOMINATION   AND   REELECTION  381 

national  election  in  the  midst  of  a  great  civil  war. 
Until  now,  it  has  not  been  known  to  the  world  that  this 
was  a  possibility.  It  shows  also,  how  sound  and  how 
strong  we  still  are.  It  shows  that,  even  among  the  can 
didates  of  the  same  party,  he  who  is  most  devoted  to  the 
Union  and  most  opposed  to  treason  can  receive  most  of 
the  people's  votes." 

Of  this  address  he  said  to  the  secretary  who 
stood  beside  him  lighting  the  page  with  a  candle  : 
"  Not  very  graceful,  but  I  am  growing  old 
enough  not  to  care  much  for  the  manner  of 
doing  things." 


CHAPTER    XVI 

VICTORY    AND    DEATH 

WHEN  the  President  sent  his  annual  message 
to  Congress,  December  6,  1864,  he  included  among 
other  things  this  short  paragraph,  "  Civil  war  con 
tinues  in  the  Spanish  port  of  San  Domingo,  ap 
parently  without  prospect  of  an  early  close."  On 
this  conflict  hang  an  act  of  prudence  by  the  Presi 
dent  and  one  of  his  most  characteristic  stories. 
Seward  one  day  came  to  a  cabinet  meeting  with 
clouded  brow.  Spain,  he  said,  was  already  sick 
of  the  European  alliance,  and  was  beginning  to 
view  the  United  States  with  a  more  friendly  eye. 
Her  government  had  never  gone  as  far  as  Palmer- 
ston  and  Louis  Napoleon  in  the  effort  for  inter 
vention,  yet  she  had  been  led  a  certain  distance 
by  her  hope  of  recovering  her  possessions  in  San 
Domingo.  The  negroes,  however,  had  put  up  a 
good  fight,  and  they  had  the  sympathy  of  Ameri 
can  abolitionists.  It  was  important  to  separate 
Spain  from  the  alliance,  and  yet  not  to  offend 
those  who  sympathized  with  San  Domingo.  To 
the  President,  however,  there  seemed  to  be  no 
difficulty.  He  was  merely  reminded  of  an  inter- 

382 


VICTORY   AND   DEATH  383 

view  between  two  negroes  in  Tennessee.  One 
was  a  preacher  and  the  other  an  erring  brother. 
"  Dar  are,"  said  Josh  the  preacher,  "  two  roads 
befo'  you,  Joe;  be  careful  which  ob  dem  you 
take.  Narrow  am  de  way  dat  leads  straight  to 
destruction ;  but  broad  am  de  way  dat  leads  right 
to  damnation."  Joe  opened  his  eyes,  and  ex 
claimed,  "  Josh,  take  which  road  you  please ;  I 
shall  go  troo  de  woods."  "  I  am  not  willing," 
concluded  the  President,  "  to  assume  any  new 
trouble  or  responsibilities  at  this  time,  and  shall 
therefore  avoid  going  to  the  one  place  with  Spain 
or  with  the  negro  to  the  other,  but  shall  take  to 
the  woods.  We  will  maintain  an  honest  and  strict 
neutrality." 

The  references  to  the  war  in  the  annual  mes 
sage  were  few,  confident,  and  positive.  He  gave 
figures  to  show  that  the  national  resources,  both 
in  wealth  and  in  men,  were  "  unexhausted  and,  as 
we  believe,  inexhaustible  " ;  and  he  told  why  the 
war  should  be  fought  to  the  bitter  end. 

"  The  public  purpose  to  reestablish  and  maintain  the 
national  authority  is  unchanged,  and,  as  we  believe, 
unchangeable.  The  manner  of  continuing  the  effort 
remains  to  choose.  On  careful  consideration  of  all  the 
evidence  accessible,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  attempt  at 
negotiation  with  the  insurgent  leader  could  result  in  any 
good.  He  would  accept  nothing  short  of  severance  of 
the  Union  —  precisely  what  we  will  not  and  cannot  give. 


384  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

His  declarations  to  this  effect  are  explicit  and  oft  re 
peated.  He  does  not  attempt  to  deceive  us.  He  affords 
us  no  excuse  to  deceive  ourselves.  He  cannot  volun 
tarily  reaccept  the  Union ;  we  cannot  voluntarily  yield 
it.  Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and 
inflexible.  It  is  an  issue  which  can  only  be  tried  by  war, 
and  decided  by  victory." 

What  was  true  of  Davis,  however,  was  not 
necessarily  true  of  his  followers.  Some  of  them 
already  desired  peace  and  reunion,  and  the  num 
ber  might  increase.  They  could  have  peace  at 
any  moment  by  mere  submission. 

"If  questions  should  remain,  we  would  adjust  them 
by  the  peaceful  means  of  legislation,  conference,  courts, 
and  votes,  operating  only  in  constitutional  and  lawful 
channels.  Some  certain,  and  other  possible,  questions 
are,  and  would  be,  beyond  the  executive  power  to  adjust ; 
as,  for  instance,  the  admission  of  members  into  Con 
gress,  and  whatever  might  require  the  appropriation  of 
money.  The  executive  power  itself  would  be  greatly 
diminished  by  the  cessation  of  actual  war.  Pardons  and 
remissions  of  forfeitures,  however,  would  still  be  within 
executive  control.  In  what  spirit  and  temper  this  con 
trol  would  be  exercised,  can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  the 
past." 

About  the  negroes  he  was  more  than  usually 
strict  in  tone. 

"  In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance 
to  the  national  authority  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents  as 


VICTORY   AND   DEATH  385 

the  only  indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war  on 
the  part  of  the  government,  I  retract  nothing  heretofore 
said  as  to  slavery.  I  repeat  the  declaration  made  a  year 
ago  that,  *  while  I  remain  in  my  present  position  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  retract  or  modify  the  Emancipation  Proc 
lamation,  nor  shall  I  return  to  slavery  any  person  who 
is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  proclamation,  or  by  any  of 
the  acts  of  Congress.' 

"  If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  executive  duty  to  reenslave  such  persons, 
another,  and  not  I,  must  be  their  instrument  to  perform 
it." 

The  increasing  severity  of  his  manner  on  this 
subject  may  be  indicated  by  his  remark  to  a 
woman  from  Tennessee,  who  had  called,  a  few 
days  before  this  message,  to  request  the  release  of 
her  husband,  partly  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a 
religious  man :  — 

"  You  say  your  husband  is  a  religious  man ;  tell  him 
when  you  meet  him  that  I  say  I  am  not  much  of  a  judge 
of  religion,  but  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  religion  that  sets 
men  to  rebel  and  fight  against  their  government,  because, 
as  they  think,  that  government  does  not  sufficiently  help 
some  men  to  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  other  men's 
faces,  is  not  the  sort  of  religion  upon  which  people  can 
get  to  heaven." 

Some  months  later  he  said,  referring  to  the 
Confederate  plan  to  enlist  negroes :  — 

2C 


386  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

"  I  may  incidentally  remark  that  having  in  my  life 
heard  many  arguments  —  or  strings  of  words  meant  to 
pass  for  arguments  —  intended  to  show  that  the  negro 
ought  to  be  a  slave  —  if  he  shall  now  really  fight  to  keep 
himself  a  slave,  it  will  be  a  far  better  argument  why  he 
should  remain  a  slave  than  I  have  ever  before  heard. 
He  perhaps  ought  to  be  a  slave,  if  he  desires  it  ardently 
enough  to  fight  for  it.  Or,  if  one  out  of  four  will,  for 
his  own  freedom,  fight  to  keep  the  other  three  in  slavery, 
he  ought  to  be  a  slave  for  his  selfish  meanness.  I  have 
always  thought  that  all  men  should  be  free ;  but  if  any 
should  be  slaves,  it  should  be  first  those  who  desire  it 
for  themselves,  and  secondly  those  who  desire  it  for 
others.  Whenever  I  hear  any  one  arguing  for  slavery, 
I  feel  a  strong  impulse  to  see  it  tried  on  him  personally." 

Settled  as  he  was  that  freedom  was  now  no 
longer  an  open  question,  his  desire  to  have  it 
brought  about  by  constitutional  methods  was  in 
tense.  Of  emancipation  he  had  once  said :  "  We 
are  like  whalers,  who  have  been  on  a  long  chase ; 
we  have  at  last  got  the  harpoon  into  the  monster, 
but  we  must  now  look  how  we  steer,  or  with  one 
flop  of  his  tail  he  will  send  us  all  into  eternity." 
He  had  steered  with  care,  and  the  rest  of  the 
course  was  clear.  It  was  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution.  Motions  to  this  end  had  been  of 
fered  in  the  House  in  December,  1863,  and  in  the 
Senate  in  1864.  How  the  President  worked  for 
the  success  of  the  effort  is  vividly  shown  in  one  of 
his  conversations,  recorded  by  Charles  A.  Dana: — 


VICTORY   AND   DEATH  387 

"  Dana,  I  am  very  anxious  about  this  vote.  It  has 
got  to  be  taken  next  week.  The  time  is  very  short. 
It  is  going  to  be  a  great  deal  closer  than  I  wish  it 
was.  .  .  .  There  are  three  that  you  can  deal  with  better 
than  anybody  else,  perhaps,  as  you  know  them  all.  I 
wish  you  would  send  for  them." 

"What  will  they  be  likely  to  want  ? "  asked  Dana. 

"  I  don't  know.  It  makes  no  difference,  though,  what 
they  want.  Here  is  the  alternative :  that  we  carry  this 
vote,  or  be  compelled  to  raise  another  million,  and  I 
don't  know  how  many  more  men,  and  fight  no  one  knows 
how  long.  It  is  a  question  of  three  votes  or  new 
armies." 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Dana,  "what  shall  I  say  to  these 
gentlemen  ? " 

"  I  don't  know,  but  whatever  promise  you  make  to 
them  I  will  perform." 

With  all  his  efforts,  however,  he  was  beaten  in 
the  House  when  on  June  15  it  came  to  a  vote. 
At  his  special  request  a  demand  for  such  an 
amendment  was  then  inserted  in  the  Republican 
platform  on  which  he  was  to  be  so  overwhelm 
ingly  elected.  After  that  election,  with  the  im 
mense  Republican  gain  in  Congress,  the  measure 
seemed  sure,  but  the  President  wished  to  hurry 
it  through  and  he  urged  in  his  message  of  De 
cember  6  that  the  legislature  should  obey  the 
unmistakable  voice  of  the  majority.  The  vote 
came  in  January,  and  when  it  was  over  Lincoln 
was  able  to  congratulate  the  people  who  crowded 


388  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

the  White  House  that  "  the  great  job  is  ended." 
The  thirteenth  amendment,  making  slavery  for 
ever  impossible  in  the  United  States,  was  then 
substantially  a  fact.  On  February  25  Leslies 
published  a  cartoon  showing  Lincoln  holding  an 
envelope  inscribed, "  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution,"  and  observing,  with  a  smile,  "  This 
is  like  a  dream  I  once  had  in  Illinois."  It  was, 
indeed,  and  like  the  dream  which  had  occupied 
the  better  part  of  his  life. 

The  fears  which  had  always  gone  with  this 
dream,  however,  were  not  unabated ;  but  before 
taking  up  this  last  problem  of  his  life,  reconstruc 
tion  and  its  dangers,  we  may  pause  to  see  him 
as  he  appeared  in  this  last  year  of  his  life.  Hap 
pily  the  picture  has  been  drawn  for  us  by  a  vig 
orous  hand — the  hand  of  America's  prophet 
poet,  the  apostle  of  Democracy,  to  whom  Lincoln 
meant  the  ideal  of  his  country's  manhood. 

"  From  my  note-book  in  1864,  at  Washington 
City,"  says  Walt  Whitman,  "  I  find  this  memo 
randum,  under  date  of  August  12  :  - 

"  I  see  the  President  almost  every  day,  as  I  hap 
pen  to  live  where  he  passes  to  or  from  his  lodg 
ings  out  of  town.  He  never  sleeps  at  the  White 
House  during  the  hot  season,  but  has  quarters 
at  a  healthy  location,  some  three  miles  north  of 
the  city,  the  Soldiers'  Home,  a  United  States 
military  establishment.  I  saw  him  this  morning 


VICTORY   AND    DEATH  389 

about  8.30  coming  in  to  business,  riding  on  Ver 
mont  Avenue,  near  L  Street.  He  always  has  a 
company  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  cavalry,  with 
sabres  drawn,  and  held  upright  over  their  shoul 
ders.  The  party  makes  no  great  show  in  uniforms 
or  horses.  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the  saddle,  generally 
rides  a  good-sized,  easy-going  gray  horse,  is  dressed 
in  plain  black,  somewhat  rusty  and  dusty,  wears 
a  black  stiff  hat,  and  looks  as  ordinaiy  in  attire, 
etc.,  as  the  commonest  man.  A  lieutenant,  with 
yellow  straps,  rides  at  his  left,  and  following  be 
hind,  two  by  two,  come  the  cavalrymen  in  their 
yellow-striped  jackets.  They  are  generally  going 
at  a  slow  trot,  as  that  is  the  pace  set  them  by  the 
one  they  wait  upon.  The  sabres  and  accoutrements 
clank,  and  the  entirely  unornamental  cortege,  as 
it  trots  toward  Lafayette  Square,  arouses  no  sensa 
tion,  only  some  curious  stranger  stops  and  gazes. 
I  see  very  plainly  Abraham  Lincoln  s  dark  brown 
face,  with  the  deep  cut  lines,  the  eyes,  etc.,  always 
to  me  with  a  latent  sadness  in  the  expression. 
We  have  got  so  that  we  always  exchange  bows, 
and  very  cordial  ones. 

"  Sometimes  the  President  goes  and  comes  in  an 
open  barouche.  The  cavalry  always  accompany 
him,  with  drawn  sabres.  Often  I  notice  as  he 
goes  out  evenings  —  and  sometimes  in  the  morn 
ing,  when  he  returns  early  —  he  turns  off  and 
halts  at  the  large  and  handsome  residence  of  the 


3QO  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Secretary  of  War  on  K  Street,  and  holds  confer 
ence  there.  If  in  his  barouche,  I  can  see  from 
my  window  he  does  not  alight,  but  sits  in  his 
vehicle,  and  Mr.  Stanton  comes  out  to  attend  him. 
Sometimes  one  of  his  sons,  a  boy  of  ten  or  twelve, 
accompanies  him,  riding  at  his  right  on  a  pony. 

"  Earlier  in  the  summer  I  occasionally  saw  the 
President  and  his  wife,  toward  the  latter  part  of 
the  afternoon,  out  in  a  barouche,  on  a  pleasure 
ride  through  the  city.  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  dressed 
in  complete  black,  with  a  long  crape  veil.  The 
equipage  of  the  plainest  kind,  only  two  horses, 
and  they  nothing  extra.  They  passed  me.  once 
very  close,  and  I  saw  the  President  in  the  face 
fully,  as  they  were  moving  slow,  and  his  look, 
though  abstracted,  happened  to  be  directed  stead 
ily  in  my  eye.  He  bowed  and  smiled,  but  far 
beneath  his  smile  I  noticed  well  the  expression  I 
have  alluded  to.  None  of  the  artists  or  pictures 
have  caught  the  subtle  and  indirect  expression  of 
this  man's  face.  One  of  the  great  portrait  paint 
ers  of  two  or  three  centuries  ago  is  needed." 

As  late  as  February  5,  1865,  the  President 
drafted  a  message  to  Congress,  which  he  never 
sent,  recommending  that  he  be  empowered  to  pay 
$400,000,000  (in  compensation  for  their  negroes) 
to  such  of  the  slave  states  as  should  have  ceased 
resistance  by  April  i.  The  same  day  Lincoln 
made  on  the  memorandum  this  indorsement, — 


VICTORY  AND   DEATH  391 

"  To-day  these  papers,  which  explain  themselves, 
were  drawn  up  and  submitted  to  the  cabinet  and  unani 
mously  disapproved  by  them." 

A  day  later  Secretary  Welles  wrote  in  his  diary : 
"  There  was  a  cabinet  meeting  last  evening.  The 
President  had  matured  a  scheme  which  he  hoped 
would  be  successful  in  promoting  peace.  It  was 
a  proposition  for  paying  the  expenses  of  the  war 
for  two  hundred  days,  or  four  hundred  millions, 
to  the  rebel  states,  to  be  for  the  extinguishment 
of  slavery  or  for  such  purpose  as  the  states  were 
disposed.  This,  in  few  words,  was  the  scheme. 
It  did  not  meet  with  favor,  but  was  dropped. 
The  earnest  desire  of  the  President  to  conciliate 
and  effect  peace  was  manifest,  but  there  may  be 
such  a  thing  as  so  overdoing  as  to  cause  a  dis 
tinct  or  adverse  feeling.  In  the  present  temper 
of  Congress  the  proposed  measure,  if  a  wise  one, 
could  not  be  carried  through  successfully;  I  do 
not  think  the  scheme  would  accomplish  any  good 
results.  The  rebels  would  misconstrue  it  if  the 
offer  were  made.  If  attempted  and  defeated,  it 
would  do  harm."  So  the  President  sadly  folded 
it  up  and  laid  it  away.  How  unpopular  his  views 
were  among  the  politicians  even  after  his  death, 
may  be  judged  by  this  passage  from  the  "  Political 
Recollections  "  of  George  W.  Julian :  "  I  spent  most 
of  the  afternoon  in  a  political  caucus,  held  for  the 


392  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

purpose  of  considering  the  necessity  for  a  new 
cabinet  and  a  line  of  policy  less  conciliatory  than 
that  of  Mr.  Lincoln ;  and  while  everybody  was 
shocked  at  his  murder,  the  feeling  was  nearly 
universal  that  the  accession  of  Johnson  to  the 
Presidency  would  prove  a  godsend  to  the  coun 
try."  Lincoln  read  the  Bible  more  in  the  last 
years  of  his  life  than  he  ever  had  before,  and  gave 
signs  of  taking  many  of  the  Christian  principles 
as  intense  realities.  All  his  plans  of  reconstruc 
tion  were  in  harmony  not  with  the  Mosaic  law 
but  with  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  latest  expressions  by  the  President  on  the 
subject  of  reconstruction  were  given  shortly  before 
his  death.  Some  of  them  were  made  to  his  gen 
erals  when  their  work  was  about  ending.  Grant 
told  him  that  surrender  might  be  expected  at  any 
time,  so  Lincoln  went  down  March  22  and  estab 
lished  himself  at  City  Point,  probably  to  make 
negotiations  easier.  Sheridan  in  his  memoirs 
hints  that  the  President  was  a  little  uneasy  about 
a  possible  rebel  capture  of  that  point,  but  Grant 
says :  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  timid,  and  he  was 
willing  to  trust  his  generals  in  making  and  exe 
cuting  their  plans.  The  Secretary  was  very  timid 
and  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  avoid  interfering 
with  the  armies  covering  the  capital  when  it  was 
sought  to  defend  it  by  an  offensive  movement 
against  the  army  guarding  the  Confederate  capi- 


VICTORY   AND   DEATH  393 

tal.  He  could  see  our  weakness,  but  he  could 
not  see  that  the  enemy  was  in  danger.  The  en 
emy  would  not  have  been  in  danger  if  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  had  been  in  the  field."  This  judgment  makes 
an  amusing  comparison  to  Stanton's  remark 
about  McClellan,  "  If  he  had  a  million  men  he 
would  swear  the  enemy  had  two  millions,  and 
then  he  would  sit  down  in  the  road  and  yell  for 
three."  It  is,  perhaps,  significant  also  that  Sher 
man  had  the  friendliest  feelings  for  Lincoln  and 
the  most  thorough  hostility  to  Stanton. 

When,  toward  the  end  of  March,  Grant,  Sher 
man,  and  Admiral  Porter  visited  Lincoln  on  the 
River  Queen  and  told  him  that  one  more  bloody 
battle  was  probably  necessary,  he  showed  the 
greatest  disappointment.  Sherman  asked  if  he 
was  ready  for  the  end  of  the  war,  and  what  would 
be  done  with  Jeff  Davis  and  the  rebel  armies. 
"  He  said,"  Sherman  records,  "  he  was  all  ready. 
All  he  wanted  of  us  was  to  defeat  the  opposing 
armies,  and  to  get  the  men  comprising  the  Con 
federate  army  back  to  their  homes,  at  work  on 
farms  and  in  the  shops.  As  to  Jeff  Davis,  he 
was  hardly  at  liberty  to  speak  his  mind  fully;  but 
intimated  that  he  ought  to  '  clear  the  country,' 
only  it  would  not  do  for  him  to  say  so  openly. 
As  usual  he  illustrated  his  meaning  by  a  story." 
This  story  has  been  told  by  various  hearers  in 
various  ways,  of  which  the  following  is  the  best: 


394  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

"When  I  was  a  boy  in  Indiana,  I  went  to  a  neigh 
bor's  house  one  morning  and  found  a  boy  of  my 
own  size  holding  a  coon  by  a  string.  I  asked 
him  what  he  had  and  what  he  was  doing.  He 
says,  '  It's  a  coon.  Dad  cotched  six  last  night, 
and  killed  all  but  this  poor  little  cuss.  Dad  told 
me  to  hold  him  until  he  came  back,  and  I'm  afraid 
he's  going  to  kill  this  one  too;  and  oh,  Abe, 
I  do  wish  he  would  get  away  ! '  '  Well,  why  don't 
you  let  him  loose  ? '  '  That  wouldn't  be  right ; 
and  if  I  let  him  go,  Dad  would  give  me  hell. 
But  if  he  would  get  away  himself,  it  would  be 
all  right.'  Now,  if  Jeff  Davis  and  those  other 
fellows  will  only  get  away,  it  will  be  all  right. 
But  if  we  should  catch  them,  and  I  should  let 
them  go, 4  Dad  would  give  me  hell.' ' 

On  March  3,  when  Grant  first  sent  word  that 
Lee  was  likely  to  surrender  and  asked  about  a 
conference,  Lincoln  had  written  immediately,  with 
his  own  hand,  this  despatch  :  — 

"WASHINGTON,  March  3,  1865.     12  P.M. 
"  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  GRANT  : 

"The  President  directs  me  to  say  that  he  wishes  you 
to  have  no  conference  with  General  Lee  unless  it  be  for 
capitulation  of  General  Lee's  army,  or  on  some  minor  or 
purely  military  matter.  He  instructs  me  to  say  that 
you  are  not  to  decide,  discuss,  or  confer  upon  any  politi 
cal  questions.  Such  questions  the  President  holds  in 
his  own  hands,  and  will  submit  them  to  no  military  con- 


VICTORY  AND   DEATH  395 

ferences  or  conventions.     Meanwhile,  you  are  to  press 
to  the  utmost  your  military  advantages. 

"  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War." 

Grant  was  now  soon  to  use  as  much  authority 
as  was  his  in  regard  to  peace.  March  29  he 
wrote  to  Sheridan  that  he  felt  like  ending  the 
matter  then.  After  victories  on  April  i  and  2, 
Grant  sent  a  note  to  City  Point,  saying,  "  I  think 
the  President  might  come  and  pay  us  a  visit 
to-morrow,"  and  about  the  same  time  Lee  sent 
word  to  Davis  that  Petersburg  and  Richmond 
must  be  abandoned.  April  3  Grant  and  Meade 
entered  the  deserted  Petersburg,  Lincoln  joined 
them,  and  they  three  walked  alone  through  the 
streets. 

On  the  same  morning  General  Weitzel,  with  a 
few  attendants,  entered  Richmond,  which  was  in 
confusion,  with  buildings  afire,  men  drunk,  and 
negroes  crazy  with  excitement.  The  next  day 
Lincoln  entered  the  Confederate  capital  with  so 
little  care  for  his  safety  that  he  walked  without 
protection  through  streets  full  of  drunken  rebels. 
When  he  reached  Weitzel's  headquarters,  a  house 
from  which  Jeff  Davis  had  just  made  a  sudden 
flight,  Lincoln,  weary  and  without  exultation, 
sank,  it  is  said,  into  the  very  chair  which  the  Con 
federate  President  used  at  his  writing-table.  One 
account  of  Lincoln's  trip  through  the  city  says  :  — 


396  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  evidently  perplexed  and  suf 
fering —  he  had  his  hat  in  his  hand  trying  to  fan 
his  furrowed  face,  which  was  streaming  with  per 
spiration  ;  he  had  mopped  his  face  till  his  hand 
kerchief  was  too  wet  to  absorb  more.  But  the 
negroes  were  happy  in  their  frenzy,  and  they  took 
no  further  note  of  events  or  the  sober  world.  One 
old  'Aunty5  had  a  sick  white  child  in  her  arms, 
who  was  alarmed  at  the  surrounding  riot,  and 
was  crying  to  go  home  ;  but  the  good  negress  kept 
trying  to  get  the  child  to  gaze  at  the  President, 
which  she  was  afraid  to  do,  and  she  would  try  to 
turn  the  child's  head  in  that  direction,  and  would 
turn  around  herself,  in  order  to  accomplish  the 
same  object.  '  See  yeah,  honey,  look  at  de  Saviour, 
an'  you'll  git  well.'  '  Touch  the  hem  of  his  gar 
ment,  honey,  an'  yur  pain  will  be  done  gone,' 
she  would  urge.  '  Glory  !  Hallelujah  ! '  '  God 
bress  Massa  Linkum  ! '  *  Open  de  pearly  gates.* 
'  I'se  on  the  mount  ob  rejoicin'.'  '  He's  de  Mes 
siah  shuah.'  '  Heah  am  de  promise  land.'  '  Rally 
round  de  flag,  boys.'  '  Jerusalem,  my  happy  home.' 
'  I'se  on  Mount  Pisgah's  stormy  top.'  '  I'se  bound 
for  de  Ian'  of  Canaan.'  '  De  Lord  save  us  !  '  '  Dis 
am  de  judgment  day.'  '  Come,  Lord,  I'se  ready 
to  go.'  '  Chariot  ob  fire.'  '  De  mount  ob  trans- 
figurashun.'  '  My  tribulations  all  done  gone.'  '  No 
more  sighin'  an'  a-weepinY  These  were  some  of 
the  expressions  used.  They  would  shout  in  each 


VICTORY   AND   DEATH  397 

other's  ears ;  negroes  and  negresses  alike  would 
suddenly  spring  in  the  air;  and  young  negresses 
would  spin  themselves  on  the  edge  of  the  crowd 
like  a  teetotum." 

On  April  6  Sheridan  reported,  "  If  the  thing  is 
pressed,  I  think  that  Lee  will  surrender."  Grant 
sent  the  despatch  to  Lincoln,  who  replied,  "  Let 
the  thing  be  pressed."  After  various  negotia 
tions,  Grant,  on  April  9,  appearing  "  with  no 
sword,  travel-stained,  and  severely  plain  both  in 
dress  and  manner,"  had  a  conference  with  Lee, 
in  which  he  agreed  to  parole  the  Confederates, 
and  allow  the  officers  their  side  arms,  private 
horses,  and  baggage.  "  Each  officer  and  man  will 
be  allowed  to  return  to  their  homes,  not  to  be  dis 
turbed  by  United  States  authorities  so  long  as 
they  observe  their  parole  and  the  laws  in  force 
where  they  may  reside."  Although  this  sentence 
exceeded  the  general's  authority,  the  President 
made  no  objection,  and  Admiral  Porter,  who  took 
notes  at  the  time,  says  that  when  Lincoln  heard 
Grant's  terms,  he  exclaimed  a  dozen  times, 
"  Good  !  "  "  All  right !  "  "  Exactly  the  thing !  "  and 
similar  expressions.  General  Sherman  says  that 
he  then  argued  that  he  could  get  his  own  terms 
for  the  surrender  of  Johnston's  army,  but  that  Lin 
coln  insisted  that  he  must  obtain  a  surrender  on 
any  terms.  One  who  was  present  when  Lincoln 
heard  the  news  of  Lee's  surrender,  said  that  Jeff 


398  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Davis  ought  to  be  hung.  The  President  quoted 
from  his  inaugural,  "  Let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be 
not  judged."  It  was  then  said  that  the  sight  of 
Libby  Prison  forbade  mercy.  "  Let  us  judge  not," 
Lincoln  repeated,  "that  we  be  not  judged." 

Steaming  up  the  Potomac  on  this  day,  April  9, 
the  President  read  aloud  to  his  companions,  for 
several  hours,  passages  from  Shakespeare,  mainly 
from  "  Macbeth,"  including  the  lines  which  follow 
Duncan's  murder. 

Whatever  was  said  at  these  various  steamboat 
conversations  about  the  treatment  of  the  South 
merely  confirms  what  is  implied  in  the  President's 
whole  course.  "  We  should,"  he  had  said  a  year 
before,  "  avoid  planting  and  cultivating  too  many 
thorns  in  the  bosom  of  society."  Two  days  after 
he  reached  Washington,  April  n,  1865,  in  his 
last  public  address,  he  said :  — 

"  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restor 
ing  the  proper  practical  relations  between  these  states 
and  the  Union,  and  each  forever  after  innocently  indulge 
his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing  the  acts  he  brought 
the  states  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave 
them  proper  assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of 
it.  The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak,  on  which 
the  new  Louisiana  government  rests,  would  be  more  sat 
isfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  50,000  or  30,000,  or  even 
20,000,  instead  of  only  about  12,000,  as  it  does.  It  is 
also  unsatisfactory  to  some  that  the  elective  franchise  is 


VICTORY  AND   DEATH  399 

not  given  to  the  colored  man.  I  would  myself  prefer 
that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the  very  intelligent,  and 
on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as  soldiers. 

"  Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana  gov 
ernment,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable.  The 
question  is,  will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and  help  to 
improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it  ?  Can  Louisiana 
be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union 
sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new  state  gov 
ernment  ?  Some  twelve  thousand  voters  in  the  hereto 
fore  slave  state  of  Louisiana  have  sworn  allegiance  to 
the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the  rightful  political  power  of 
the  state,  held  elections,  organized  a  state  government, 
adopted  a  free-state  constitution,  giving  the  benefit  of 
public  schools  equally  to  black  and  white,  and  empower 
ing  the  legislature  to  confer  the  elective  franchise  upon 
the  colored  man.  Their  legislature  has  already  voted  to 
ratify  the  constitutional  amendment  recently  passed  by 
Congress,  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation. 
These  twelve  thousand  persons  are  thus  fully  committed 
to  the  Union  and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  state  — 
committed  to  the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things, 
the  nation  wants  —  and  they  ask  the  nation's  recogni 
tion  and  its  assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

"  Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost 
to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect,  say  to 
the  white  man,  'You  are  worthless  or  worse;  we  will 
neither  help  you  nor  be  helped  by  you.'  To  the  blacks 
we  say,  '  This  cup  of  liberty  which  these,  your  old  mas 
ters,  hold  to  your  lips  we  will  dash  from  you,  and  leave 
you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the  spilled  and  scattered 
contents  in  some  vague  and  undefined  when,  where,  and 
how.'  If  this  course,  discouraging  and  paralyzing  both 


400  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

white  and  black,  has  any  tendency  to  bring  Louisiana 
into  proper  practical  relations  with  the  Union,  I  have  so 
far  been  unable  to  perceive  it.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we 
recognize  and  sustain  the  new  government  of  Louisiana, 
the  converse  of  all  this  is  made  true.  We  encourage  the 
hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the  twelve  thousand  to  ad 
here  to  their  work  and  argue  for  it  and  proselyte  for  it 
and  fight  for  it  and  feed  it  and  grow  it  and  ripen  it  to  a 
complete  success.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all 
united  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance  and  energy  and 
daring,  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the  elec 
tive  franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the 
already  advanced  steps  toward  it  than  by  running  back 
ward  over  them  ?  Concede  that  the  new  government  of 
Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be  as  the  egg  is  to 
the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the 
egg  than  by  smashing  it." 

April  14,  the  last  day  of  Lincoln's  life,  the 
cabinet  discussed  reconstruction.  As  members 
differed  as  to  whether  trade  between  the  states 
should  be  carried  on  under  military  supervision 
or  more  liberally,  the  President  appointed  Stan- 
ton,  Welles,  and  McCulloch,  the  three  Secretaries 
who  had  expressed  divergent  views,  a  commis 
sion  with  power  to  examine  the  whole  subject, 
and  he  said  that  he  should  be  satisfied  with  their 
conclusions. 

About  the  reestablishment  of  civil  government, 
Lincoln,  trusting  himself  and  his  cabinet  and  dis 
trusting  Congress,  was  anxious  to  get  the  South- 


VICTORY    AND    DEATH  401 

ern  state  governments  in  operation  before  the 
December  session,  and  that  with  as  little  discus 
sion  as  possible. 

"  No  one  need  expect  he  would  take  any  part 
in  hanging  or  killing  these  men,"  runs  Secretary 
Welles's  abstract  of  the  President's  words,  "  even 
the  worst  of  them.  Frighten  them  out  of  the  coun 
try,  open  the  gates,  let  down  the  bars,  scare  them 
off,"  said  he,  throwing  up  his  hands  as  if  scaring 
sheep.  "  Enough  lives  have  been  sacrificed ;  we 
must  extinguish  our  resentments  if  we  expect 
harmony  and  union." 

As  Lincoln  did  not  live  to  enforce  and  modify 
his  own  ideas  of  reconstruction,  he  cannot  be 
judged  by  the  results.  Those  results  were  bad 
enough.  They  are  still  bad  enough.  Whether 
they  could  have  been  better,  no  man  knows. 
Lincoln  always  looked  with  horror  on  the  race 
problems  that  would  come  with  freedom,  and  he 
fought  desperately  to  have  the  negroes  removed 
and  colonized.  Told  by  the  almost  universal 
voice  of  the  people  that  it  was  impracticable,  he 
made  the  best  of  necessity  and  henceforth  tried 
everything  —  compensation,  kind  words,  amnesty 
—  to  remove  bitterness  in  the  South.  Had  he 
lived  four  years  longer,  it  is  probable  that  his  skil 
ful  hand  would  have  done  much  to  make  his  Chris 
tian  charity  effective  in  the  rebel  states ;  and,  as 
always,  he  would  have  learned  with  every  step 

2D 


402  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

how  best  to  take  the  next.  We  may  drop  this 
subject  with  one  incident.  When  the  negro 
Frederick  Douglass  attended  the  reception  on 
the  evening  of  the  second  inauguration,  a  police 
man  tried  to  stop  him  at  the  door.  Lincoln  or 
dered  the  negro  admitted,  and  he  always  took 
pains  to  speak  of  him  as  "  my  friend  Douglass." 1 
The  last  high  literary  effort  of  the  doomed 
President  was  his  second  inaugural  —  a  paper 
which  stands,  on  a  plane  with  the  Gettysburg 
address,  at  the  height  of  his  more  solemn  utter 
ances.  It  is:  — 

"  FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN  :  At  this  second  appearing 
to  take  the  oath  of  the  presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at  the 
first.  Then  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail  of  a  course 
to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting  and  proper.  Now,  at  the 
expiration  of  four  years,  during  which  public  declara 
tions  have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every  point 
and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still  absorbs  the 
attention  and  engrosses  the  energies  of  the  nation,  little 
that  is  new  could  be  presented.  The  progress  of  our 
arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as  well 
known  to  the  public  as  to  myself ;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  rea 
sonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all.  With  high 
hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is 
ventured. 

1  This  is  one  of  the  many  significant  stories  in  the  volume  of 
reminiscences  edited  by  Mr.  Rice. 


VICTORY   AND   DEATH  403 

"On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years 
ago,  all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impend 
ing  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it;  all  sought  to  avert  it. 
While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from 
this  place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union  with 
out  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking  to 
destroy  it  without  war  —  seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  depre 
cated  war ;  but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather 
than  let  the  nation  survive  ;  and  the  other  would  accept 
war  rather  than  let  it  perish.  And  the  war  came. 

"  One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  Southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con 
stituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew  that 
this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To 
strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was  the 
object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union, 
even  by  war ;  while  the  government  claimed  no  right  to  do 
more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  enlargement  of  it. 

"  Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude 
or  the  duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither 
anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease 
with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself  should  cease. 
Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less 
fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read  the  same 
Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God ;  and  each  invokes  his 
aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any 
men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wring 
ing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces ;  but 
let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayers 
of  both  could  not  be  answered  —  that  of  neither  has 
been  answered  fully. 


404  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

"  The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  '  Woe  unto 
the  world  because  of  offences !  for  it  must  needs  be 
that  offences  come ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offence  cometh.'  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American 
slavery  is  one  of  those  offences  which,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued 
through  his  appointed  time,  he  now  wills  to  remove,  and 
that  he  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war, 
as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offence  came, 
shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those 
divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God 
always  ascribe  to  him  ?  Fondly  do  we  hope  —  fervently 
do  we  pray  —  that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may 
speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue 
until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and 
until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be 
paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  'The  judg 
ments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.' 

"  With  malice  toward  none  ;  with  charity  for  all ;  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have 
borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan  — 
to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  last 
ing  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations." 

Some  of  his  frequent  warnings  about  plans  to 
kill  him,  Lincoln  kept  in  his  desk  marked  "  As 
sassination  Letters."  He  deemed  it  impossible 
to  avoid  this  risk,  and  he  took  few  steps  for 


VICTORY  AND   DEATH  405 

protection,  even  when  his  dreams  were  of  evil 
omen. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  President's  life  Grant 
arrived  in  Washington,  and  attended  the  cabinet 
meeting,  where  he  showed  some  anxiety  about 
Sherman.  Lincoln  assured  him  that  there  would 
soon  be  good  news,  as  he  had  had  his  dream  about 
the  vessel,  the  same  which  had  presaged  Antie- 
tam,  Murfreesboro,  Gettysburg,  and  Vicksburg. 
Members  of  the  cabinet  looked  impressed,  but 
Grant  replied  simply  that  "  Murfreesboro  was  no 
victory,  and  had  no  important  results."  He  was 
not  a  poet,  and  the  President,  in  his  way,  was. 

He  referred,  a  few  days  before  the  end,  to  the 
number  of  warnings  by  dream  in  the  Bible,  the 
book  which  had  of  late  taken  such  a  hold  upon 
him.  Finally  he  said :  — 

"  About  ten  days  ago,  I  retired  very  late.  I  had 
been  up  waiting  for  important  despatches  from  the 
front.  I  could  not  have  been  long  in  bed  when  I 
fell  into  a  slumber,  for  I  was  weary.  I  soon  began 
to  dream.  There  seemed  to  be  a  deathlike  still 
ness  about  me.  Then  I  heard  subdued  sobs,  as 
if  a  number  of  people  were  weeping.  I  thought 
I  left  my  bed  and  wandered  downstairs.  There 
the  silence  was  broken  by  the  same  pitiful  sob 
bing,  but  the  mourners  were  invisible.  I  went 
from  room  to  room ;  no  living  person  was  in 
sight,  but  the  same  mournful  sounds  of  distress 


406  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

met  me  as  I  passed  along.  It  was  light  in  all 
the  rooms,  every  object  was  familiar  to  me ;  but 
where  were  all  the  people  who  were  grieving  as 
if  their  hearts  would  break  ?  I  was  puzzled  and 
alarmed.  What  could  be  the  meaning  of  all  this? 
Determined  to  find  the  cause  of  a  state  of  things 
so  mysterious  and  so  shocking,  I  kept  on  until  I 
arrived  at  the  east  room,  which  I  entered.  There 
I  met  with  a  sickening  surprise.  Before  me  was 
a  catafalque,  on  which  rested  a  corpse  wrapped  in 
funeral  vestments.  Around  it  were  stationed  sol 
diers  who  were  acting  as  guards ;  and  there  was 
a  throng  of  people,  some  gazing  mournfully  upon 
the  corpse,  whose  face  was  covered,  others  weep 
ing  pitifully.  '  Who  is  dead  in  the  White  House  ? ' 
I  demanded  of  one  of  the  soldiers.  '  The  Presi 
dent,'  was  his  answer ;  '  he  was  killed  by  an  assas 
sin  ! '  Then  came  a  loud  burst  of  grief  from  the 
crowd,  which  awoke  me  from  my  dream.  I  slept 
no  more  that  night ;  and  although  it  was  only  a 
dream,  I  have  been  strangely  annoyed  by  it  ever 
since." 

This  dream  continued  to  disturb  him.  A  few 
days  after,  he  said  to  Lamon :  "  To  sleep,  per 
chance  to  dream.  Ay,  there's  the  rub." 

On  the  evening  of  April  14,  Good  Friday,  he 
went  to  the  theatre.  In  the  door  of  his  box  a 
hole  had  been  cut  by  a  body  of  conspirators,  so 
that  the  occupants  could  be  watched.  Just  after 


VICTORY  AND   DEATH  407 

ten  o'clock,  John  Wilkes  Booth,  an  actor,  entered 
the  box,  shot  the  President  with  a  pistol  in  the 
back  of  the  head,  stabbed  one  of  the  theatre  party 
who  tried  to  stop  him,  and  leaped  upon  the  stage. 
In  the  folds  of  the  American  flag  he  caught  his 
spur,  and  broke  his  leg.  Limping  across  the 
stage,  swinging  his  dagger,  he  cried,  "  Sic  semper 
tyrannis"  the  motto  of  Virginia,  and  escaped, 
soon  to  be  killed.  The  bullet,  passing  through 
the  brain,  left  its  victim  unconscious,  and  at 
twenty-two  minutes  past  seven  on  the  following 
morning  Abraham  Lincoln  was  dead. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

A    LAST    WORD 

VICTORY  and  death  were  needed  to  give  Lin 
coln  immediately  his  place  at  home  and  abroad. 
Criticism  subsided  and  appreciation  began.  From 
that  day  to  this  the  tide  has  flowed  without  an  ebb. 

Immediately  after  the  assassination  the  extreme 
radicals  —  the  men  of  more  heat  than  judgment, 
of  more  self-appreciation  than  patience  —  were 
pleased,  and  they  alone.  When  the  President 
had  been  one  day  dead  the  committee  on  the 
conduct  of  the  war  called  upon  the  new  President, 
and  Senator  Wade  said  :  "  Johnson,  we  have  faith 
in  you.  By  the  gods,  there  will  be  no  trouble  now 
in  running  the  government !  " 

There  was  trouble,  however,  and  the  country 
is  not  proud  of  the  men  who  undertook  to  do 
what  Lincoln  was  prevented  from  doing. 

The  funeral  was  on  the  iQth,  and  behind  the 
coffin,  at  the  head  of  the  line,  marched  a  detach 
ment  of  negro  troops.  Two  days  the  body  lay  in 
state,  while  the  people  came  to  the  capital  to  look 
their  last  on  Lincoln's  face.  The  body  rests  in 
Springfield,  the  town  in  which  the  President  had 
made  the  beginnings  of  his  fame. 

408 


A   LAST   WORD  409 

Later  a  monument  was  built  there,  and  when  it 
was  dedicated  Sherman  spoke,  and  Grant  said : 
"  With  all  his  disappointments  from  failures  on 
the  part  of  those  to  whom  he  had  intrusted  com 
mands,  and  treachery  on  the  part  of  those  who 
had  gained  his  confidence  but  to  betray  it,  I  never 
heard  him  utter  a  complaint,  nor  cast  a  censure, 
for  bad  conduct  or  bad  faith.  It  was  his  nature 
to  find  excuses  for  his  adversaries.  In  his  death 
the  nation  lost  its  greatest  hero;  in  his  death  the 
South  lost  its  most  just  friend." 

Among  the  expressions  of  grief  that  passed 
over  the  land  none  was  more  elevated  than  the 
mourning  cry  of  our  Democracy's  first  poet,  WALT 
WHITMAN  :  - 

O  CAPTAIN!    MY  CAPTAIN 

"  O  Captain  !  my  Captain  !  our  fearful  trip  is  done, 
The  ship  has  weathered  every  rack,  the  prize  we  sought  is  won, 
The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear,  the  people  all  exulting, 
While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel,  the  vessel  grim  and  daring ; 
But  O  heart !  heart !  heart ! 
Oh,  the  bleeding  drops  of  red, 

Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

"  O  Captain  !  my  Captain  !  rise  up  and  hear  the  bells, 
Rise  up  —  for  you  the  flag  is  flung  —  for  you  the  bugle  trills, 
For  you  bouquets  and  ribboned  wreaths  —  for  you  the  shores 

a-crovvding, 

For  you  they  call,  the  swaying  mass,  their  eager  faces  turning ; 
Here  Captain  !  dear  father  ! 
This  arm  beneath  your  head  ! 


4IO  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck 
You've  fallen  cold  and  dead. 

"  My  Captain  does  not  answer,  his  lips  are  pale  and  still, 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no  pulse  nor  will, 
The  ship  is  anchored  safe  and  sound,  its  voyage  closed  and 

done, 

From  fearful  trip  the  victor  ship  comes  in  with  object  won ; 
Exult,  O  shores,  and  ring,  O  bells  ! 
But  I  with  mournful  tread, 

Walk  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen,  cold  and  dead." 

To  the  instinctive  Democracy  of  Whitman  in 
the  same  year  of  Lincoln's  death,  was  added  the 
aristocratic  Democracy  of  Lowell :  — 

"  For  him  her  Old  World  moulds  aside  she  threw, 

And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West, 
With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 

How  beautiful  to  see 

Once  more  a  shepherd  of  mankind  indeed, 
Who  loved  his  charge,  but  never  loved  to  lead ; 
One  whose  meek  flock  the  people  joyed  to  be, 

Not  lured  by  any  cheat  of  birth, 

But  by  his  clear-grained  human  worth, 
And  brave  old  wisdom  of  sincerity  ! 

They  knew  that  outward  grace  is  dust ; 

They  could  not  choose  but  trust 
In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 

And  supple-tempered  will 
That  bent  like  perfect  steel  to  spring  again  and  thrust. 

His  was  no  lonely  mountain  peak  of  mind, 


A   LAST  WORD  41 1 

Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 
A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind ; 
Broad  prairie  rather,  genial,  level-lined, 
Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human  kind, 
Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of  loftiest  stars. 

Nothing  of  Europe  here, 
Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still, 
Ere  any  names  of  Serf  and  Peer 
Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface 
And  thwart  her  genial  will ; 
Here  was  a  type  of  the  true  elder  race, 
And  one  of  Plutarch's  men  talked  with  us  face  to  face. 

I  praise  him  not ;  it  were  too  late  ; 
And  some  innative  weakness  there  must  be 
In  him  who  condescends  to  victory 
Such  as  the  Present  gives,  and  cannot  wait, 
Safe  in  himself  as  in  a  fate. 
So  always  firmly  he  ; 
He  knew  to  bide  his  time, 
And  can  his  fame  abide, 
Still  patient  in  his  simple  faith  sublime, 

Till  the  wise  years  decide. 
Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 

Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour, 
But  at  last  silence  comes  ; 

These  all  are  gone,  and,  standing  like  a  tower, 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame. 

The  kindly-earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American." 

With  these  two  tributes  but  one  other  in  poetry 
deserves  to  stand,  and  it  came  as  a  noble  retrac 
tion  from  the  nation  whose  leading  men  had  been 


412  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

unable  to  see  clearly  across  the  sea  until  Lee's 
surrender  and  Booth's  pistol  taught  them  how. 
John  Bright  had  spoken  boldly  for  the  Union 
from  the  first,  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  to  plead  our 
cause,  had  left  the  closet  for  the  platform ;  but 
these  were  single  figures,  society  and  the  politi 
cians  sympathizing  with  the  haughty  slave-owners, 
and  despising  the  Northern  tradesmen.  It  was 
late  in  the  war  that  the  organ  of  prosperous  Brit 
ish  thought,  the  London  Times,  described  those 
who  believed  in  the  possibility  of  restoring  the 
Union  as  a  "small  knot  of  fanatics  and  sciolists." 
When  we  remember  that  even  Gladstone  believed 
that  Davis  and  his  supporters  had  created  a  nation, 
we  understand  something  of  the  difficulties  met 
by  Lincoln,  Adams,  and  Seward  in  their  foreign 
relations.  No  nobler  confession  could  have  been 
made  than  the  one  Tom  Taylor,  a  few  weeks  after 
the  murder,  printed  in  the  London  Punch :  — 

"  You  lay  a  wreath  on  murdered  Lincoln's  bier  ! 
You,  who  with  mocking  pencil  wont  to  trace, 
Broad  for  the  self-complacent  sneer, 

His  length  of  shambling  limb,  his  furrowed  face, 

"  His  gaunt,  gnarled  hands,  his  unkempt,  bristling  hair, 

His  garb  uncouth,  his  bearing  ill  at  ease, 
His  lack  of  all  we  prize  as  debonair, 

Of  power  or  will  to  shine,  of  art  to  please  ; 

"  You,  whose  smart  pen  backed  up  the  pencil's  laugh, 
Judging  each  step,  as  though  the  way  were  plain ; 


A   LAST  WORD  413 

Reckless,  so  it  could  point  its  paragraph, 
Of  chiefs  perplexity,  or  people's  pain  ! 

"  Beside  this  corpse,  that  bears  for  winding  sheet 

The  stars  and  stripes  he  lived  to  rear  anew, 
Between  the  mourners  at  his  head  and  feet, 
Say,  scurrile  jester,  is  there  room  for  you  ?  " 

Surely  there  is  room  for  all.  As  Lincoln  felt 
for  mankind,  so  now  every  kind  of  men  can  feel 
for  him. 

"  He  was  the  Southern  mother,  leaning  forth 
At  dead  of  night  to  hear  the  cannon  roar, 
Beseeching  God  to  turn  the  cruel  North 
And  break  it  that  her  son  might  come  once  more; 
He  was  New  England's  maiden,  pale  and  pure, 
Whose  gallant  lover  fell  on  Shiloh's  plain."  1 

From  France,  immediately  after  his  death, 
came  one  of  the  most  just  recognitions  of  what 
formed  the  President's  political  significance. 
Some  French  liberals  sent  Mrs.  Lincoln  a  medal 
on  which  part  of  the  inscription  was,  "  Saved  the 
Republic,  without  veiling  the  Statue  of  Liberty." 
That  he  used  great  power  without  in  any  degree 
injuring  the  Republican  system  will  always  be  a 
corner-stone  of  his  fame.  In  his  very  last  public 
address  he  pointed  out  that  the  ability  of  the 
nation  to  preserve  itself  without  checking  its 
freedom  was  the  most  hopeful  lesson  of  the  war. 
If  Democracy  is  the  best  government,  it  is  be- 

1  Maurice  Thompson. 


414  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

cause  it  is  well  that  the  people  should  rule  them 
selves,  make  their  own  errors,  and  find  their  own 
remedies.  Lincoln  helped  them  to  do  this.  He 
was  sure  that  the  great  body  of  his  fellow-citizens 
needed  only  time  and  the  facts  to  sail  safely 
through  the  roughest  sea.  His  object  was  to 
persuade  and  not  to  coerce.  He  knew  that  such 
was  the  meaning 9  of  Democracy.  "Come,  let 
us  reason  together  about  this  matter,"  Lowell 
imagines  him  always  saying.  His  life  he  meas 
ured  out  alone,  without  intimate  friends,  with  the 
universal  heart  of  the  people  for  his  friend.  Like 
them  he  was  careless  of  many  little  things,  and 
profoundly  just  on  big  ones.  Like  them  he  was 
not  quick,  but  sure.  He  took  his  wisdom  and 
his  morals  from  the  range  of  his  country,  east 
and  west,  north  and  south,  hearing  the  distant 
voices  with  a  keener  ear  than  most,  and  not  caring 
to  theorize  until  he  had  weighed  the  messages 
from  every  corner. 

In  natural  harmony  with  his  breadth  in  great 
things  went  his  easy  tact  in  small  ones.  The 
course  of  the  story  has  taken  us  through  many 
proofs  of  this,  has  given  pictures  of  anxious  steer 
ing  around  obstacles,  where  a  straight  course 
would  have  meant  shipwreck ;  but  a  tale  of  his 
mild  superiority,  told  by  Lowell  in  his  powerful 
essay  on  Democracy,  adds  another  to  a  list  which 
can  hardly  be  too  long.  The  Marquis  of  Harting- 


A   LAST  WORD  415 

ton,  although  he  wore  a  secession  badge  at  a  pub 
lic  ball  at  New  York,  yet  was  led  by  curiosity  and 
bad  taste  to  seek  an  introduction  to  the  President. 
Lincoln,  with  the  dignity  of  ease,  kept  his  gentle 
ness,  without  quite  hiding  his  contempt,  by  inno 
cently  and  persistently  addressing  the  foreign 
nobleman  as  Mr.  Partington.  The  critic  who 
tells  this  story,  referring  to  Lincoln's  writing,  says 
that  the  tone  of  familiar  dignity  is  perhaps  the 
most  difficult  attainment  of  mere  style,  as  well  as 
an  indication  of  personal  character.  Certainly, 
the  power  to  speak,  act,  and  write  with  humility 
and  elevation,  with  familiarity  and  dignity,  with 
common  equality  and  personal  distinction,  sprang 
from  the  roots  of  Lincoln's  character.  It  was  no 
feat  of  literary  or  intellectual  skill.  It  was  alto 
gether  the  man.  It  was  what  was  left  after  the 
storms  and  wastes  of  a  gloomy  life  had  given 
their  large  and  solitary  schooling  to  a  noble  soul. 
In  one  of  his  dreams  he  was  in  a  great  assem 
bly,  where  the  people  made  a  lane  to  let  him 
pass.  "  He  is  a  common-looking  fellow,"  said  one 
of  them.  "  Friend,"  replied  Lincoln,  even  in  his 
dream,  "the  Lord  prefers  common-looking  people  ; 
that  is  why  he  made  so  many  of  them."  Even 
Disraeli,  hypocritically  no  doubt,  said  that  in  Lin 
coln's  character  there  was  "  something  so  homely 
and  innocent  that  it  takes  the  question,  as  it 
were,  out  of  all  the  pomp  of  history  and  the  cere- 


416  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

monial  of  diplomacy,"  and  "  touches  the  heart  of 
nations." 

"  I  never,"  says  his  assistant  Secretary  of  War, 
"  heard  him  say  anything  that  was  not  so."  He 
could  refrain  from  speaking  at  all,  but  when  the 
time  came  he  told  the  truth.  In  his  later  years 
experience  had  so  mellowed  him  that  he  saw  the 
truth  almost  without  moral  indignation ;  but  in  his 
early  days,  before  the  burden  of  the  world  had 
chastened  him,  he  could,  as  we  have  seen,  "  skin 
defendant"  One  law  case  he  refused  with  these 
words,  "  I  could  set  a  neighborhood  at  logger 
heads,  distress  a  widowed  mother  and  six  father 
less  children,  and  get  you  the  #600,  which,  for  all 
I  know,  she  has  as  good  a  right  to  as  you  have ; 
but  I  will  not  do  it." 

"  There  are,"  said  Phillips  Brooks,  "  men  as 
good  as  he,  but  they  do  bad  things.  There  are 
men  as  intelligent  as  he,  but  they  do  foolish 
things.  In  him  goodness  and  intelligence  com 
bined  and  made  their  best  result  of  wisdom." 
Strangely  mingled  wisdom  of  yEsop  and  of  the 
apostle,  it  was  sought  most  willingly  in  the  lowli 
est  haunts  and  applied  with  fitness  in  the  high 
est.  When  Sherman  came  to  the  River  Queen 
from  his  march  to  the  sea,  what  Lincoln  asked 
him  about  with  particular  zest  was  the  "  bum 
mers  "  on  the  routes,  and  the  devices  to  collect 
food  and  forage.  He  cared  little  for  great  men, 


A   LAST  WORD  417 

not  overmuch  for  great  books ;  but  from  Shake 
speare,  the  Bible,  sentimental  ballads,  American 
humorists,  and  above  all  from  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  daily  life,  he  learned  the  essential  lessons. 
Pomp  and  ceremony  were  tiresome,  ludicrous, 
or  unnoticed.  He  wrote  messages  of  moment 
to  generals  and  secretaries  on  cards  and  slips  of 
paper.  A  long  letter  about  a  law  case,  contain 
ing  a  desire  to  retain  him,  he  returned  with  the  in 
dorsement:  "  Count  me  in.  A.  Lincoln."  His  first 
spectacles,  which  he  bought  in  1856  in  a  tiny  jewel 
lery  shop  in  Bloomington,  with  the  remark  that  he 
"had  got  to  be  forty-seven  years  old  and  kinder 
needed  them,"  cost  him  37^-  cents.  At  one  o'clock, 
on  a  night  after  Lincoln  had  been  away  for  a  week, 
his  Springfield  neighbor  heard  the  sound  of  an 
axe.  Leaving  his  bed  he  saw  Lincoln  in  the  moon 
light  chopping  the  wood  for  his  solitary  supper. 

Thus,  from  whatever  angle  we  approach  this 
nature,  we  glide  inevitably  from  the  serious  to 
the  amusing,  and  back  again  from  the  homely 
to  the  sublime.  The  world  no  longer  sees  the 
leisure  and  manners  of  a  few  as  a  compensation 
for  the  suppression  of  the  many.  The  law  of 
universal  sympathy  is  upon  us.  Some  imagine 
that  in  this  levelling  lies  the  loss  of  poetry,  of 
great  natures,  of  distinction,  the  impressive  and 
stirring  being  laid  upon  the  altar  of  a  gloomy 
right.  To  them  the  life  of  Lincoln  need  have 


41 8  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

little  meaning.  Others  rejoice  in  the  new  truth, 
and  trust  the  world,  and  smile  at  prophecies. 
For  them  Lincoln  represents  soundness.  For 
them  his  rule  is  as  full  of  pictures  and  inspira 
tion  as  anything  in  the  past,  as  full  of  charm  as 
it  is  of  justice,  and  his  character  is  as  reassuring 
as  it  is  varied.  He  had  no  artificial  aids.  He 
merely  proved  the  weapon  of  finest  temper  in  the 
fire  in  which  he  was  tested.  In  the  struggle  for 
survival  in  a  social  upheaval  he  not  only  proved 
the  living  power  of  integrity  and  elasticity,  but  he 
easily  combined  with  his  feats  of  strength  and 
shrewdness  some  of  the  highest  flights  of  taste. 
As  we  look  back  across  the  changes  of  his  life, 
-see  him  passing  over  the  high  places  and 
the  low,  and  across  the  long  stretches  of  the 
prairie ;  spending  years  in  the  Socratic  argu 
ments  of  the  tavern,  and  anon  holding  the  rudder 
of  state  in  grim  silence ;  choosing  jests  which 
have  the  freshness  of  earth,  and  principles  of  eter 
nal  right ;  judging  potentates  and  laborers  in  the 
clear  light  of  nature  and  at  equal  ease  with 
both ;  alone  by  virtue  of  a  large  and  melancholy 
soul,  at  home  with  every  man  by  virtue  of  love 
and  faith,  —  this  figure  takes  its  place  high  in  our 
minds  and  hearts,  not  solely  through  the  natural 
right  of  strength  and  success,  but  also  because  his 
strength  is  ours,  and  the  success  won  by  him 
rested  on  the  fundamental  purity  and  health  of 


A   LAST  WORD  419 

the  popular  will  of  which  he  was  the  leader  and 
the  servant.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  in  a  deep  and 
lasting  sense  the  first  American.  All  the  world 
can  see  his  worth,  but  perhaps  only  we  who  know 
the  taste  of  the  climate,  the  smell  of  the  prairie,  the 
tone  of  fresh  and  Democratic  life,  can  quite  ap 
preciate  his  flavor.  General  and  President  Wash 
ington,  who,  standing  firm,  with  wisdom  and 
power,  gave  the  opportunity  to  build  a  nation, 
has  left  a  name  that  grows  with  the  onward 
march  of  his  country.  Abraham  Lincoln,  nearly 
a  century  later,  found  the  nation  grown,  about  to 
test  the  sufficiency  of  its  creed,  and  with  the  com 
prehension  of  lifelong  intimacy  helped  it  to 
understand  itself.  His  fame  also  has  risen,  and 
will  rise,  with  the  fortunes  of  his  country.  His 
deeds  stand  first,  but  his  story  becomes  higher 
through  the  pure  and  manifold  character  which 
accomplished  them  and  the  lastingly  fair  and 
vital  words  in  which  he  defended  them. 


INDEX 


Adams,  John  Quincy,  16 

Adams,   Charles    Francis,   164,   191, 

194,217,  232,  247,  311,  412 
JEsop,  416;    "Fables"  of,  II,  291 
Africa,  256 

Alexandria  (Virginia),  233 
Alton  (Illinois),  56,  58,  84,  146 
Alvary,  John,  2 
American  party,  125 
Anderson,  General  Robert,  33,  200, 

245 

Andrews,  case  of,  334 
Anti-Johnson  men,  the,  354 
Anti-Nebraska  fight,  140 

legislation,  128 

Antietam,  276,  281,  284,  320,  405 
Arkansas,  177,  206,  354 
Arlington  (Virginia),  233 
Armstrong,  Jack,  26,  27,  43 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  the,  255,  262, 

298,  3*5,  3i6,  360,  362 
Army  of  Virginia,  the,  274 
Arnold,  Representative,  264 
"  Assassination  Letters,"  404 
Atkinson,  General,  32 
Atlanta  (Georgia),  379 
Atlantic  Monthly,  the,  369,  370 
Austria,  286 
Austrian  minister,  the,  239 

Baird,  James,  2 

Baker,   Colonel,    E.  D.,   73,   74,  99, 

246,  289 

Baker,  Edward  H.,  87,  88,  89,  99 
Ball's  Bluff,  battle  of,  246 


Baltimore  (Maryland),  163,  181,  182, 

208,  209,  211,  348,  355 
Baltimore  mob,  the,  271 
Banks,  General,  274,  295,  327 
Bannan,  Benjamin,  304 
Barnum,  P.  T.,  314 
Bates,  Edward,   157,   161,  162,  184, 

1 86,  192,  269,  349 
Bates,  Hymer  D.,  258 
Bates  forces,  the,  185 
Beachland  (Kentucky),  5 
Beardstown  (Illinois),  26,  31 
Beaufort   district    (South  Carolina), 

252 

Beauregard,  General,  200,  241 
Bell,  John,  156,  168,  171 
Belmont,  Augustus,  272 
"  Ben  Bolt,"  283 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  365,  366 
Berry,  William  F.,  35,  36,  37,  42 
Berry  and  Lincoln,  36,  37,  42,  97 
Bible,  the,  11,  88,  347,  392,  403,405, 

417 

Big  Black  River,  the,  327 
Black,  Judge,  Secretary  of  State,  176 
Black  Hawk,  31 
Black   Hawk  War,  31,  33,   62,  96, 

187 

"  Black  Republican,"  143 
Blackstone's  Commentaries,  36,  38 
Blaine,  James  G.,  141,  149,  172,  233 
Blair,  Frank,  185,  186 
Blair,  Montgomery,   130,    185,    1 86, 

192,  193,  269,  345,  348,  349,  370 
Blair  family,  the,  345 


421 


422 


INDEX 


Blondin  anecdote,  the,  216 
Bloomingdale  (Illinois),  128 
Bloomington  (Indiana),  417 
Blue  Banks,  25 
"  Blue-Tailed  Fly,"  the,  282 

Bohlen, ,  289 

Bond,  Mr.,  99 

Boone,  Daniel,  2 

Booth,  John  Wilkes,  407,  412 

Boston,  solid  men  of,  126 

protection  needed  in,  173,  367,  369 
Boston,  Christopher,  2,  4 
Boutwell,  George  $.,  347 
Breckenridge,  John  C.,  163,  1 68, 171 
Bright,  John,  412 
British  minister,  the,  239 
Britton,  Isaac  S.,  77 
Brooklyn  navy-yard,  the,  200 
Brooks's  assault  on  Sumner,  140 
Brooks,  Noah,  169 
Brooks,  Phillips,  416 
Brown,  Thomas  C,  85 
Browning,  O.  H.,  243 
Browning,  Mrs.  O.  H.,  67 
Buchanan,  James,  129,  133,  1 60,  162, 

171,  172,  188,  202 
Buchanan's  cabinet,  172,  176 
Buell,  General,  288,  325 
Buffalo  (New  York),  238 
Buffum,  Deacon,  287 
Bull  Run,  89,  240,  263,  329 

second  battle  of,  275 
Burner,  Daniel  Green,  37 
Burns,  39 
Burnside,   General,    260,    284,    287, 

289,  3°7»  3I5»  3l6>  327 
Busch,  Sarah,  8 
Butler,  General  Benjamin  F.,  94,  211, 

246,  265,  296,  298,  299, 343, 352, 

353 

Butler,  William,  62,  85,  100 
Butler,  Mrs.  William,  74 
Butterfield,  Justin,  101 
Byron's  "dream,"  51,  170 


Caesar's  hair,  the  color  of,  333 
Calhoun,  John,  41,  42 
California,  155 

Cameron,  Simon,  159,  160,  161,  185, 
1 86,  192,  246,  250,  252,  253,  255, 

257,  305,  354 
Campbell,  Judge,  193 
Canada,  196 

Carlisle  (Pennsylvania),  322 
Carlyle,  240 

Carpenter,  William,  35,  44 
Cartwright,  Peter,  35,  89 
Cass,  General,  33,  94 
Cass   Township,    Schuykill    County, 

(Pennsylvania),  302 
Central  America,  196 
Chaddon  vs.  Beasley,  no 
Chancellorsville,  317,  318,  320 
Chandler,  Albert  B.,  258 
Charles  I.,  371 
Charleston    (South    Carolina),    156, 

165,  192,  247 

Charleston  convention,  the,  156,  184 
Charlestown  (Illinois),  145 
Chase,  Salmon  P.,  161, 162, 175,  184, 

185,  192, 193,  202,  253,  255,  275, 

276,  289, 290,  291,  292,  312,  343, 

344,  345>  346 
Chattanooga,  266,  328 
Chicago,  56,  138,  152,  153,  155,  156, 

I58,  30i,  358»  367,  368,  379 
Chicago  bargain,  the,  185 
Chicago  Tribune,  the,  152,  367,  368 
Chickahominy,  flood  in  the,  266 
Chitty,  38 

Cincinnati  (Ohio),  48,  121,  180,  307 
Cincinnati  Commercial,  the,  165 
City  Point,  392,  395 
Civil  War,  the  changes  which  caused 

the,  123 

Clary  Grove  boys,  the,  26 
Clary's  Grove,  35 
Clay,  Henry,  89,  90,  149,  198 
Clay's  speech  of  1850,  182 


INDEX 


423 


Cold  Harbor,  376 

Coldwell,  John,  2 

Coles  County  (Illinois),  26,  42 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  104,  260,  299,  375 

Colgate,  Isaac,  48 

Collamer,  Jacob,  161 

Columbus  (Ohio),  148 

Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  War, 

285 

Concord  Cemetery,  49 
Confederate  commissioners,  the,  232 
Congress,  Dictionary  of,  12,  95 
"  Congress  land  "  timber,  24 
Connecticut,  185 
Constitution,  the  Federal,  58 

guarantees  of,  131 

loyalty  to,  157 

fidelity  to,  235 

Constitutional  Union  party,  the,  156 
Cook  County  (Illinois),  367 
Cooper  Institute,  149 
Cooper  Union,  148,  164 
"  Copperheadism,"  293 
Copperheads,  293,  307 
Corinth,  the  evacuation  of,  266 
Couch,  General,  321,  322 
Cox,  Gabriel,  2 
Crawford,  Andrew,  10,  19 
Cromwell,  need  of  a,  281 
Curtin,  Governor,  303,  305 
Curtis,  General,  306 
Curtis,  George  Ticknor,  130 
Curtis,  George  William,  173 
Cuthbert,  Mrs.,  332 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  257,  366,  386,  387 

Danville  (Illinois),  117 

Davis,  of  Maryland,  348,  353.     See 

Wade 
Davis,  Jefferson,  178,  199,  206,  296, 

369,  37 1>  384,  393,  394,  395,  397, 

398 
Davis,   Judge,    103,    108,   109,   no, 

117,157,158,  159,160,  166,  184 


Davis,  Walter,  101 

Dawson,  John,  35,  44 

Dayton,  William  L.,  128,  161,  162 

Decatur  (Illinois),  22,  23,  56,  153 

Delaware,  207 

Democracy,  Southern  wing  of,  163 

Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  118,  119,  363, 

364,  365 

Dickinson,  D.  S.,  356 

Disraeli,  415 

District  of  Columbia,  58,  59 
slave  trade  in  the,  95 
slavery  abolished,  264 

Dix,  John  A.,  Secretary  of  the  In 
terior,  177 

Dix,  Major-General,  294 

Dole,  William  P.,  159 

Donelson,  Fort,  324,  325 

Dorsey,  Hazel,  10 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  39,  45,  57,  74, 
75,  78,  125,  126,  128,  130,  131, 
133,  134,136,137,138,139,140, 
141,  142,  143,  144,  145, 146, 147, 
148,  149, 155,  156,  162, 163,  164, 
165,  167,  168,  171,  188,  191,  202 

Douglass,  Frederick,  144,  296,  297, 
402 

Drake,  Dr.,  48 

Dred  Scott  case,  129 

Dred  Scott  decision,  145 

Dred  Scott  doctrine,  136 

Dred  Scott  fame,  211 

Du  Chaillu,  Paul,  256 

Dunston,  Richard,  35 

Dutch,  the,  307 

Early,  General,  377,  378,  379 
Eckert,  General,  258 
Edwards,  Matilda,  75 
Edwardsville  (Illinois),  25 
Elizabethtown  (Kentucky),  5 
Emancipation     Proclamation,      the, 

273,  293,   347,  385 
Embree,  Hon.  E.,  letter  to,  101 


424 


INDEX 


Emerson,   R.  W.,   I,  164,   175,  285, 

340,  342 

England,  286,  310,  311,  356 
England,  Lincoln's  minister  to,  164, 

191,217.    See  also  Great  Britain 
English  bill,  the,  133 
Euclid,  103 

European  alliance,  the,  383 
Evarts,  William  M.,  158,  160 
Evening  Post,  the,  150 
Everett,  Edward,  156,  335 
Ewell,  General,  318 
Ewell's  corps,  323 
Ewing,  Mr.,  101 

Falstaff,  68,  332 

Farragut,  Admiral,  379 

Fenton,  R.  E.,  260,  350 

Fessenden,  Senator,  345 

Fillmore,  President,  129 

Finance,  Committee  on,  346 

Flint  and  Gibson's  treatise  on  sur 
veying,  41 

Florida,  140,  177 

"  Flush  Time  in  Alabama,"  238 

Ford,  Governor,  78 

Forquer, ,  54,  55 

Fort  Armstrong,  32 

Fort  Gibson,  327 

Fort  Pickens,  177,  193,  194,  197, 
199 

Fort  Pillow  massacre,  373 

Fort  Sumter,  33,  177,  191,  193,  194, 
195,  197,  199,  200,  20 1,  202,  204, 
205,  209 

Fort  Warren,  247 

Fortress  Monroe,  294 

France,  196,  247,  249,  286,  356,  413 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  240 

Frederick  (Maryland),  277 

Fredericksburg  (Virginia),  287,  288, 
313,  317,  318 

Freeport  (Illinois),  144 

"  Freeport  Doctrine,"  the,  146 


Freese,  Jacob,  333 

Fremont,  General  John  C,  128, 
129,  155,  243,  244,  245,  246, 
265,  274,  324,  347,  348,  349, 
366 

French  mission,  the,  365 

Fry,  General  James  B.,  214,  301,  302, 

3°75  367 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the,  95,  174 
Fund  Commissioners,  72 
Furness,  Dr.,  233 

Galena  (Illinois),  129 

Gamble,  Governor,  306 

Ganson,  John,  238,  239 

Garland,  N.  A.,  37 

General  Assembly,  Lincoln  a  candi 
date  for  the,  28 

General  Land  Office,  the,  101,  102 

Gentry,  Matthew,  91 

Gentryville  (Indiana),  6,  8,  10,  14, 
1 6,  18,  22,  91 

Georgia,  177 

Gettysburg,  320,  321,  322,  323,  353, 
405 

Gettysburg  address,  the,  13,  334. 
335,  336,  337,  338,  402 

"Giant,  the  Little,"  75,  126,  133, 188. 
See  Douglas,  Stephen  A. 

Gibbon,  39 

Giddings, ,  123 

Gilmore,  of  North  Carolina,  184 

Gilmore, ,  369 

Gladstone,  412 

Goodrich,  Grant,  103 

Graham,  Schoolmaster,  26,  27,  42 

Grand  Gulf,  327 

Grant,  General,  242,  323,  324,  325, 
326,  327,  330,  352,  356,  360, 
361,  362,  363,  367,  375,  376, 
377,  378,  379,  392,  393,  394, 

395,  397,  405,  409 

Great  Britain,  196,  232,  248,  249, 
310.  See  also  England 


INDEX 


425 


Greeley,  Horace,  136,  142,  147,  148, 

155,  162,  172,  273,  274,  370 
Green,  B.  Z.,  no 
Green,  William  G.,  36 
Grigsby,  Billy,  18 
Grigsby  family,  the,  18 
Guthrie,  of  Kentucky,  184 

Hackett,  James  H.,  331,  332 

Hagerstown,  322 

Halleck,  General,  274,  275,  318,  323, 

324,  325 
Hamlet,  332 

king's  speech  in,  238 
Hamlet's  creed,  88 
Hamlin,  Hannibal,    162,    179,    280, 

353,  355.  356 

Hanks,  Dennis,  12 

Hanks,  John,  5,  23,  24,  25,  154 

Hanks,  Joseph,  5 

Hanks,  Nancy  (Mrs.  Thomas  Lin 
coln),  5,  7,  8 

Hanks,  Thomas,  154 

Hardin,  Colonel  J.  J.,  88,  89 

Hardin  County  (Kentucky),  5,  96 

Harper's  Weekly,  313 

Harrisburg  (Pennsylvania),  181,  182, 

303,  305 
Harrison,  William  Henry,  155,  162, 

163 

Harrison's  Landing,  268,  274 
Hartington,  Marquis  of,  415 
Havana,  247 
Havana  (Illinois),  34 
Hay,  John,  211,  215,  252,  291,  351. 

See  Nicolay  and  Hay 
"  Henry  VIII.,"  332 
Henry,  Fort,  324 
Henry,  Patrick,  294 
Hentz's,  Mrs.  Lee,  novels,  39 
Hermitage  lion,  the,  94 
Herndon,  Archer  D.,  35 
Herndon,  Rowan,  31,  35,  38 
Herndon,  W.  H.,  43,  75,  76,  85,  87, 


88,92,  93,  97, 104, 105,  in,ii2, 
124, 128, 134,  147, 148, 152, 1 66, 

167,  182,  212 

"  Hickory  stripe,"  the,  94 

Hill's  corps,  323 

Hodgens  Mill  (Kentucky),  5 

Holt,  Judge,  299,  300 

Honest  Abe,  19,  163 

Hooker,  General,  284,  314,  315,  316, 

317,  318,  320,  327 
House  of  Representatives,  the,  167, 

341 

Hunter,  General,  264,  265,  295,  296 
Hunter,  R.  M.  T.,  371,  372 
Hurst,  Mr.,  100 

lies,  Captain  Elijah,  33 

Illinois,  5,  31,  56,  57,  63,  85,  96, 
123,  126,  127,  131,  133,  136, 
137,  139,  141,  144,  151,  153, 
15S>  !58>  :59,  160,  161,  164, 
184,  206,  236,  238,  243,  264, 
281,  361,  388 

Illinois  Central,  the,  105 

Illinois  River,  31,  34,  56 

Illiopolis  (Illinois),  56 

Inaugural  Address,  First,  1 88, 189, 190 
Second,  402,  403,  404 

Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia, 
181 

Independent  Rangers,  33 

Indian  Affairs,  Commissioner  of,  159 

Indiana,  4,  6,  10,  16,  36,  57,  90,  155, 
158,  159,  160,  185,  186,  187, 
206,  281,  359,  360,  361,  394 

Indiana,  Revised  Statutes  of,  12 

Indianapolis  (Indiana),  180 

Indians,  2,  4,  31 

"  Inventions,"  address  on,  147 

Iowa,  206 

Jackson,  Andrew,  16,  94 
Jackson's  proclamation  against  nulli 
fication,  182 


426 


INDEX 


Jackson  Democrat,  4 
Jackson  men,  27 
Jackson  (Mississippi),  326 
Jackson,  Stonewall,  263,  275,  316 
Jacksonville  (Florida),  295 
Jacksonville  (Illinois),  47,  56,  8l 
James  River,  the,  263,  268 
Jamestown  (Illinois),  24 
Janesboro  (Illinois),  144 

Jaques, ,  369 

Jefferson  County  (Kentucky),  2 
Johnson,  Albert  E.  H.,  258 
Johnson,  Andrew,  234,  295,  353,  354, 

355»  356»  392,  408 

Johnson,  General,  241 ;  his  army,  397 
Johnson,  John,  1 8,  24,  26 
Johnston,  General,  325 
Jones,  Captain,  22 
Journal,  letter  to  the,  54 
Judd,  Norman  B.,  152, 153, 157,  158, 

159,  161 

Julian,  George  W.,  349 
Julian's    "  Political    Recollections," 

391 

Kansas,  124,  125,  132,  133 
"  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,"  125 

Kearny, ,  289 

Kellogg,  W.,  174 

Kentucky,  2,  5,  8,  9,   163,   184,  206, 

233,  244,  245,  266,  270 
Key  West,  177,  196 
Kirkham's  grammar,  27 
Knob  Creek,  6 
Know-Nothing  party,  125 
Know-Nothingism,  167 

Lafayette  Square  (Washington),  389 

Lake  Michigan,  56 

"  Lament   of    the  Irish    Emigrant," 

the,  283 
Lamon,  Ward  H.,  46,  105,  in,  141, 

182, 183,  235,  281,  282, 335,  339, 

355.  356>  357»  406 


La  Rue  County  (Kentucky),  5 
"  Lear,"  332 

Lecompton  (Illinois),  132 
Lee,  Robert  E.,  207,  208,  275,  276, 
284,  287,  316,  318, 321, 322, 323, 

375»  394,  395»  397,  412 
Legal  Tender  Act,  the,  347 
Leslie's,  388 
Libby  prison,  398 
Lickern,  4.     See  Lincoln 
"  Life  of  Washington,"  Weems,  1 1 
"  Life  on  the  Ocean  Wave,"  parody 

on,  282 
Lincoln,  Abraham  (father  of  Thomas), 

2 

Lincoln,  Abraham : 
ancestry,  2 
birth,  5 

early  hardships,  6 
the  Lincoln  home,  7 
his  mother's  death  and  its  effect,  8 
his  father's  second  marriage,  9 
personal  appearance,  9 
early  education,  10-12 
youthful  amusements,  14 
superstitious  nature,  15 
appearance  further  described,  17 
athletic  prowess,  18 
sympathetic  nature,  19 
first  thoughts  of  love,  20 
speculates  in  business,  22 
oratorical  efforts,  23 
reaches  out  into  the  world,  24-26 
fondness  for  store  gossip,  27 
political  aspirations,  28 
a  campaign  handbill,  28-30 
enters  Black  Hawk  War,  and  is 

chosen  captain,  31-33 
first  political  defeat,  35 
forms  partnership  with  Berry,  35 
attracted  to  law,  36 
business  difficulties,  37 
becomes  postmaster  at  New  Salem, 

38 


INDEX 


427 


meets  Ann  Rutledge,  38 
literary  preferences,  39 

becomes  a  surveyor,  41 

business  indebtedness,  42,  43 

elected  to  the  legislature,  44 

his  characterization  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  45 

returns  to  private  life,  46 

engagement  to  Ann  Rutledge,  and 
her  death,  47 

its  lasting  effect  upon  his  charac 
ter,  48 

fondness  for  lugubrious  verse,  49 

his  favorite  poem,  50 

meets  Mary  Owens,  53 

political  success,  55 

the  Illinois  boom,  56,  57 

opinion  on  slavery,  58 

literary  style,  60 

law  studies,  61 

forms  law  partnership  with  John 
T.  Stuart,  62 

declaration  of  love  to  Mary  Owens, 
64-66 

letter  to   Mrs.  O.  H.  Browning, 
67-71 

growth  of  political  power,  72 

love  affair  and  meeting  with  Mary 
Todd,  74 

the  engagement  and  its  effect,  75, 
76 

partnership  with  Stephen  T.  Lo 
gan,  76 

first  issue  with  Douglas,  78 

distress  at  evils  of  slavery,  78 

abstemiousness,  82 

marriage  to  Miss  Todd,  85 

seeking  to  go  to  Congress,  86,  87 

his  defeat  and  its  cause,  88 

final  success,  89 

revisits  early  home,  90 

attempts  in  verse,  90-92 

moves  to  Washington,  .92 

attack  on  General  Cass,  94 


the  Wilmot  Proviso,  95 
attitude  toward  his  father,  97 
opinions  on  public  office,  99-102 
returns  to  law,  103 
his  many-sided  character,  104-111 
unhappy  home,  112 
family  relations,  113,  114 
dress  and  appearance,  116 
life  on  the  circuit,  117,  118 
appreciation  of  humor,  119 
letter  to  his  brother,  120 
the  Stanton  insult,  121 
returns  to  politics,  123 
repeal  of  the    Missouri  Compro 
mise,  123 

the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  125 
first  meeting  with  Douglas,  126 
Republican   convention   of   1856, 

128 

the  Dred  Scott  case,  129 
chosen  for  senatorship,  134 
popularity  of  Douglas,  137 
the  challenge  to  Douglas,  141 
Elaine's  summary  of  the  contest, 

141 

the  first  debate,  143 
further  meetings,  144-146 
the  questions  at  issue,  145 
the  Freeport  Doctrine,  146 
the  Cooper  Union  speech,  148-150 
political  plans,  151-155 
the  Chicago  convention  and  Lin 
coln's  nomination,  155-162 
the    beginning  of  the    campaign, 

163-167 

the  result  of  the  election,  168 
a  prophetic  vision,  169 
preparation    for    the   task    before 

him,  171-178 

farewell  speech  in  Springfield,  179 
the  trip  to  Washington,  180-182 
forming  his  cabinet,  184—186 
his  character  and  appearance,  187 
the  inaugural,  188-190 


428 


INDEX 


forebodings  of  war,  191-194 
the  Seward  document,  195,  196 
Lincoln's  reply,  197,  198 
the   Sumter  and  Pickens  expedi 
tions,  199 

the  surrender  of  Sumter,  200 
its  effect,  201-204 
the  call  for  troops,  205,  206 
fears  for  Washington,  208 
the  attack  on  the  Sixth  Massachu 
setts,  208 

Lincoln's  attitude,  209-213 
the  troubles  of  office,  214-216 
the  despatch  of  Seward  to  Adams, 

217-231 

Lincoln's  alterations,  232 
the  President's  message,  234,  236 
meeting  the  emergency,  237 
love  of  fun,  238-240 
the    appointment    of    McClellan, 

241-243 
private  letter  to  O.  H.  Browning, 

244-246 
the  capture  of  Mason  and  Slidell, 

247 

attitude  of  Great  Britain,  248,  249 
removal    of    Cameron    from    the 

cabinet,  252 

appointment  of  Stanton,  253,  254 
his  character,  255-257 
conduct  of  the  War  Department, 

258,  259 
dissatisfaction  with  McClellan,  260, 

261 

his  removal,  262 

Lincoln's  summary  of  the  situa 
tion,  266 

looking  toward  emancipation,  270 
the  Louisiana  dispute,  271-273 
cabinet  meetings,  275-276 
preparation  for  the  Emancipation 

Proclamation,  277-281 
relief  from  the  strain,  282,  283 
letter  to  Carl  Schurz,  288,  289 


cabinet  dissensions,  289-291 

the  signing  of  the  proclamation, 

291 

its  immediate  effects,  293,  294 
colored  troops,  295-297 
Lincoln's  treatment  of  deserters, 

298-300 

troubles  of  drafting,  301-305 
military  affairs,  306-310 
political  cartoons,  313,  314 
letter  to  General  Hooker,  315,  316 
his  interest  in  the  army,  320-323 
the  rise  of  Grant,  324-328 
anecdotes  of  the  period,  331-334 
the  Gettysburg  address,  335-339 
obstacles  to   Lincoln's  reelection, 

343-348 

Lincoln  as  a  politician,  349-358 
the  political  and  military  situation, 

360-377 

Sheridan's  victory,  378,  379 
reelection,  380 

the  message  of  1864,  382-385 
the  thirteenth  amendment,  388 
Whitman's  portrait  of  the  Presi 
dent,  388-390 

Lincoln  enters  Richmond,  395 
Lee's  surrender,  397 
the  last  public  address,  398-400 
the  second  inaugural,  402-404 
Lincoln's  dream  of  the  end,  405, 

406 

the  assassination,  406,  407 
the  immediate  effect,  408 
Grant's  tribute,  409 
Whitman's  poem,  409,  410 
Lowell's  ode,  410,  411 
his  breadth  of  character,  414,  415 
final  estimate,  417 

Lincoln,  Matilda,  1 8,  19 

Lincoln,  Mrs.,  86,  92,  102,  117,  313, 
332,  333,  390,  413 

Lincoln,  Mordecai,  4 

Lincoln,  Robert  T.,  89 


INDEX 


429 


Lincoln,  Tad,  313,  332,  333 
Lincoln,  Thomas,  4, 5,  6,  7, 12, 13,  23, 

26,42 
Lincoln,  Mrs.  Thomas.     See  Hanks, 

Nancy 
Lincoln  and  Herndon,  88,  103 

Linder, ,  84 

Linkhorns,  2.     See  Lincoln 
"  Little  Hickory,"  94 
Little  Pigeon  Creek,  6 
Locofoco  preamble,  the,  202 
Logan,  Stephen  T.,  76,  77,  87,  89, 

159,  1 60,  361 
London  Times,  the,  412 
"Long  Nine,"  the,  55,  56,77 
Long  Run  (Kentucky),  2 
Louis  Napoleon,  382 
Louisiana,   177,  270,  271,  272,  328, 

354,  398,  399,  400 
Louisville,  11,  78,  124 
Lovejoy,  Owen,  126 
Lovejoy  murder,  58 
Lowell,  J.  R.,  i,  175,  410,  414 

Lyon, ,  289 

Lyons,  Lord,  the  British  minister,  239 

McCarthy,  Justin,  376 
McClellan,  George  B.,  147,  241,  242, 
243,  246,  247,  255,  259,  260,  261, 

262,  263,  266,  268,  275,  276,  284, 
285,  288,  316,  319,  325,  328,  351, 
356,  358,  360,  365,  376,  393 

McClernand,  Congressman,  243 
McClure,  Colonel,  158,  253,  260,  302, 

303,  304,  305,  353,  354,  355, 361, 

366 

McCormick  vs.  Mauny,  121 
McCormick  house,  the,  118 
McCulloch,  Secretary,  400 
McDowell,  General,  240,  241,  262, 

263,  274 
McLean,  John,  161,  162 

McNamar, ,  46,  47,  48,  49 

McNeill, ,  46 


"  Macbeth,"  332,  398 

Macon  County  (Illinois),  23,  154 

Maine,  162,  345 

Manassas,  261 

Manchester  (New  Hampshire),  287 

Mansfield, ,  289 

Martinsburg,  318 

Maryland,   155,   185,  186,  207,  208, 
209,  211,  234,  245,  271,  276, 277, 

353 

Mason  and  Slidell,  capture  of,  247. 
Massachusetts,    156,   192,   206,  208, 

210 

Matheney,  James  H.,  85. 
Meade,  General,  242,  318,  321,  322, 

323,  360,  361,  395. 
Medill,  Joseph,  367,  368 
Menard  County,  107 
Merrimac,  the,  207 
Merryman,  E.  H.,  84 
Metropolitan  Hall  (Chicago),  153 
Mexico,  196 
Mexico,  war  with,  92,  93,  97,   102, 

143,  202 
Michigan,  206 
Middle  States,  the,  1 73 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  240,  249,  412 

Milroy, ,  318 

Mississippi,  177 

Mississippi  River,  25,  31,  266,  295, 

326 
Missouri,  84,  130,  136,  157,  161,  184, 

1 86,    206,  234,   243,   245,  265, 

266,  305,  306,  352 
Missouri,  state  court  of,  129 
Missouri  Compromise,  the,  120,  123, 

125,  131. 

Mitchell,  "split  log,"  17 
Mobile  Bay,  379 
"  Molly  Maguires,"  302 
Montgomery  (Alabama),  177,  178 
Morgan,  Governor,  158 
Morris,  Achilles,  35 
Morrison,  Colonel  W.  R.,  288 


430 


INDEX 


Morse,  Mr.,  263 
Mosaic  law,  the,  392 
Mozambique,  165 
Murfreesboro,  405 

Nasby,  Petroleum  V.;  "  Letters,  "238 

writings  of,  379 
Nashville,  capture  of,  325 
National  Convention,  the,  155 
National  Executive  Committee,  chair 
man  of,  370 

Navy,  Secretary  of  the,  194,  311 
Navy  Department,  the,  247 
Neal,  Thomas  M.,  35 
Nebraska,  125 
Nebraska  Bill,  the,  136 
"Negro-lover,"  165 
New  Bedford  (Massachusetts),  192 
New  England,  173,  265,  355,  368 
New  Hampshire,  155,  287 
New  Jersey,  155,  156,  161,  180,  239, 

333 

New  Orleans,  24,  25,  192 

New   Salem  (Illinois),    24,   26,   31, 

34,  35>  385  44>  46,  48*  49>  53> 

55 
New  York,  161,  201,  208,  281,  308, 

364,  365 

New  York  City,  148,  352,  415 
New  York  Herald,  173,  365,  366 
New  York  Times,  158 
New   York   Tribune,  149,  150,  165, 

274,  354 
Niagara,  98 

Niagara  River,  the,  216 
Nicolay,  John  G.,  215,  350 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  215,  252,  358 
Nolin  Creek,  6 
Norfolk,  England,  2 
North  Carolina,  184,  206,  270 
Nutt,  Commodore,  314 

Offut,  Denton,  24,  25,  26,  27,  31 
Oglesby,  Governor,  153,  154 


Ohio,  148,  155,  161,  206,  239,  307, 
308,  310,  344,  345,  353 

Ohio  River,  6,  124 

"On  to  Richmond,"  237 

Oregon,  governor  or  secretary  of, 
102 

Ottawa  (Illinois),  143 

Owens,  Mary  S.,  53,  60,  64 

Paine,  43 

Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason,"  88 

Palmerston,  382 

Parker,  Richard,  2 

Parker,  Theodore,  123,  338 

Patterson,  General,  240 

Peace  party,  the,  286 

Peninsula,  the,  274 

Pennsylvania,  155,  156,  158,  159, 
161,  185,  208,  277,  281,  302, 
304,  305,  318,  360 

Peoria  (Illinois),  34,  56 

Peters,  Zachariah,  35 

Petersburg,  395 

Philadelphia,  155,  173,  181,  182,303 

Phillips,  Wendell,  123,  127,  164, 173, 
192,  347»  348 

Pickens,  Governor,  appoints  a  cabi 
net,  176 

Pierce,  President,  162 

Pigeon  Creek,  8 

"  Pilgrim's  Progress,  The,"  .II 

Pinkerton,  182 

Pittsburg  Landing,  325 

Pocahontas,  the,  199 

Polk,  President,  92,  94,  162 

Pomeroy,  Senator,  343,  346 

Pope,  Benjamin,  2 

Pope,  General,  274,  316 

Porter,  Admiral,  393,  397 

Postmaster-General,  the,  345 

Potomac,  the,  241,  285,  318,  321,  398 

Pottsville  (Pennsylvania),  304 

Powhatan,  the  frigate,  199,  2OO 

Punch,  London,  413 


INDEX 


431 


Quincy  (Illinois),  145 

Radford,  Reuben,  35 
"Rail  Splitter,"  the,  163 
Rappahannock,  the,  317 
Raymond,  Henry,  158,  344,  370 

Reno, ,  289 

Republican    State   Committee,    the, 

148,  151,  160 
Republican  State  Convention  (1858), 

134,  153 

Revolution,  fathers  of  the,  I 

Reynolds,  Governor,  31 

Rhode  Island,  208,  210 

Rice,  A.  T.,  299,  footnote,  402,  foot 
note 

"  Richard  III,"  332 

Richardson, ,  289 

Richmond  (Virginia),  165,  260,261, 
266,  274,  284,  287,  317,  318, 

376»  395 

Rickard,  Sarah,  74 
River  Queen,  the,  393,  416 
Robeson,  Edward,  35 
"Robinson  Crusoe,"  II 
Roby,  Amy,  10 
Roby,  Kate,  19 
Rock  River  Valley,  31 
Rogers,  James,  2 
Romine,  John,  13 
Rosecrans,  General,  324,  328 
Russell,  Lord,  311 
Russia,  125,  196 

minister  to,  253 
Rutledge,  Ann,  38,  40,  46,  47,  48, 

49,  53 

Rutledge,  James,  38 
Rutledge's  milldam,  24 

St.  Louis  (Missouri),  25,  124 
San  Domingo,  197,  382 
San  Jacinto,  the,  247 
Sancho  Panza,  a,  314 
Sandorus  (Illinois),  109 


Sandwich  Islands,  349 

Sangamon  County  (Illinois),  32,  41, 

44,  45,  48,  89 
Sangamon  Journal,  the,  76,  79 
Sangamon  River,  23,  24,  31 
Schmellfinnig,  307 
Schofield,  General  John  M.,  306 
Schurz,  Carl,  288,  361 
Scott,  General,   123,  178,  191,  192, 

194, 197,  207,  208,  211,  233,  241, 

247 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the,  392 
Seventh  Regiment  (New  York),  the, 

212 

Seward,  William  H.,  123,  138,  156, 
157,    158,    160,  161,    162,   164, 
182,    184,    185,   186,    190,  191, 
193,  194,   197,    198,    199,   200, 
201,  214,   232,   247,   259,  266, 
289,   290,   291,  311,   329,  335, 
355»  358»  371,  379,  3^2,  412 
Seward's  Higher  Law,  157 
Seward's  letters  to  Adams,  217-232 
Seymour,  Governor,  308,  350 
Shakespeare,  39,  238,  332,  398,  417 
Shenandoah,  the,  377 
Sheridan,    General,    327,  331,   360, 
361,  377,  378,  379»  392,  395> 
397 
Sherman,   General,    326,   327,    328, 

329,  330,   359>   36l»  368,  375> 

379,  393,  397,  4°5>  4°9>  4*6 
Sherman,  John,  328 
Shields,  James,  83,  84,  127 
Shiloh,  325 
Ship  Island,  265 
Short,  James,  43 
Sickles,  General,  353 
Sixth  Massachusetts,  attack  on,  208 
"Slave-Hound  of  Illinois,"  165 
Slidell.     See  Mason 
Smith,   Caleb    B.,    159;     appointed 

Secretary  of  Interior,  185,  186, 

192,  194 


432 


INDEX 


Smith,  General  Kirby,  296,  321,  322 

Socrates,  Lincoln  compared  to,  119 

Soldiers'  Home,  the,  388 

South  Carolina,  176,  177,  252;  U.S. 
senators  resign,  1 76 

Southern  Congress,  the,  241 

Spain,  196,  382 

Speed,  Joshua  F.,  62,  63,  73,  75,  78, 
80,  82,  90,  124 

Speed,  Miss  Mary,  78 

Spencer  County  (Indiana),  6 

Springfield  (Illinois),  20,  24,  25,  31, 
41,  54,  56,  60,  61,  62, 63,  71,  74,  ! 
86,  98,  103,  in,  116,  128,  130, 
131,   162,    163,    166,   173,   176, 
179,  182,    183,    185,   212,  256,  | 
313,  408,  417 

Springfield  Journal,  the,  124 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  121,  176,  253, 
254,  255,  256,  257,  258,  259, 
262,  264,  275,  277,  285,  286, 
301,  302,  303,  304,  307,  314, 
325,  333,  347.  348,  362,  364, 
365*  367>  379,  390,  393,  395. 
400 

State,  Secretary  of,  99,  194,  289,  290, 

3" 

State  of  New  York,  Secretary  of,  363 

State  House  (Springfield),  Govern 
or's  room  in  the,  166 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  93,  184 

Stone,  Dan,  59 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  175 

Stevens, ,  289 

Stuart,  John  T.,  35,  44,  62,  63,  74, 
76 

Stuck,  John,  4 

Stuck,  William,  2 

Sumner,  Charles,  123,  132,  140,  346 

Sumter  expedition,  the,  199,  200, 
263 

Supreme  Court,  the,  129, 136 

Swaney, ,  1 1 

Swett,  Leonard,   107,  109,  117,  119, 


120,    122,   158,   159,   1 60,    165, 

166,  355 

"  Sword  of  Bunker  Hill,"  the,  283 
Syburt,  Peter,  2,  4 

Talisman,  the,  31 

Taney,  Chief  Justice,  130,  131,  188, 

211,  346 

Tarbell,  Miss,  367 
Taylor,  Colonel  Dick,  73 
Taylor,  E.  D.,  35 

Taylor,  General,  94,  96,  101,  162,  202 
Taylor,  Tom,  412 
Tennessee,  156,  206,   266,  270,  295, 

353.  354,  383,  385 

Tennessee  River,  324 

Terre  Haute  (Indiana),  89 

Texas,  177 

Thayer's  popular  sovereignty,  174 

Thirteenth  Amendment,  the,  386, 388 

Thomas,  General,  327 

Thompson, ,  33 

Thompson,  Maurice,  413 

Tinker,  Charles  A.,  258 

Todd,  David,  345 

Todd,  Mary,  74,  75,  76,  83,  85.     See 
Mrs.  Lincoln. 

Tom  Thumb,  314 

Tortugas,  the  Dry,  298 

Townsend,  Assistant  Attorney-Gen 
eral,  303,  304 

Treasury  Department,  345 
offered  to  Guthrie,  184 

Treasury,  Secretary  of  the,  99,  159, 

3".  343 
Trent,  the,  247 
Trent  brothers,  42 

Trumbull, ,  128 

Tyler,  General,  318 

United  States,  history  of  the,  1 1 

Vallandigham,  307,  308,  310 
Valley  Forge,  108 


INDEX 


433 


Van  Bergen, ,  43 

Vandalia  (Illinois),  44,  45,  46,  47, 

56,60 

Vanity  Fair,  198 
Vermilion  County  (Illinois),  117 
Vermont,  161 
Vicksburg,  capture  of,  323,  326,  327, 

353,  405 

Victoria,  Queen,  239 
Virginia,  2 

secedes,  206,  207,  234 
Virginia  Convention,  the,  204 
Volney,  43 

Volney's  "  Ruins,"  88 
Voltaire,  43 

Wade,  Ben,  291 

Wade,  Senator,  348,  353,  356,  408 

Wade-Davis  faction,  the,  353,  354 

Walker,  Governor,  132 

War,  Secretary  of,  121,  194,  206, 
250,  253,  255,  258,  259,  275, 
286,  298,  311,  333,  390 

War,  Confederate  Secretary  of,  296 

War  Department,  the,  206,  257,  258, 

275»  325>  348,  364,  366,  367 
War  Department  contracts,  252 
War  President,  the,  366 
Ward,  Artemus,  277 

"  Recollections  "  of,  238 
Warden,  biographer  of  Chase,  346 
Washburne,  E.  B.,  of  Illinois,   125, 

174,  178,  361,  364 
Washington,  George,  179,  419 
Washington  (D.C.),  90,  98,  99,  102, 

112,    1 1 6,    1 20,   172,   176,   179, 

181,    182,    183,   184,   187,   193, 

199,     2O8,    2O9,    2IO,    211,    241, 
2F 


256,    262,     263,    266,    271,    275, 

299,  305»  323,   33  !>  346,  35°» 
353>   36i,   363,   365,  367,  376> 
377»   378,   388,   398,  405 
Washington  County  (Kentucky),  4,  5 
Washington  monument,  the,  81 
Washington  Post,  the,  258 
Webster,  Daniel,  95,   123,  126,  127, 

149,  213 

Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  182 
Weed,  Thurlow,  158,  174,  176,  184, 

35°»  355 

Weitzel,  General,  395 
Welles,    Gideon,    Secretary    of    the 

Navy,  185,   192,  199,  247,  259, 

316,  391,  400,  401 
West  Virginia,  241,  354 
Western  Union,  the,  259 
White,  Hugh  L.,  54 
White   House,   the,    179,   208,  233, 

237,    240,   277,  333,   359,  388, 

406 

Whitewater  (Wisconsin),  34 
Whitman,  Walt,  388,  409,  410 
Whitney,  Henry  C,   113,  114,   117, 

J53 

Wide- Awake  Clubs,  163 
Wilderness,  the,  375 
Wilkes,  Captain,  247,  248 
Wilmot  Proviso,  the,  95 

Wilson, ,  33 

Winchester,  318,  379 
Wright  case,  the,  108 

Yates,  Governor,  44 

Yazoo  Pass  expedition,  the,  327 

Yorktown,  294 

"  Young  Hickory,"  94 


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